No. 1 



PRICE. 25 CEiVTS 



C3NNELLEY'S HISTORICAL PSf^PHLETS 



AN APPEAL 



TO THE RECORD 



F 
.C75I 



Being quotations from Historical Documents 
and the Kansas Territorial Press, refuting 
" False Claims " and other things written for 
and at the instance of Charles Robinson by 
G. W. Brown. And some portions of the 
Public Records of Charles Robinson and 
G. W. Brown, taken f^om the Archives of 
the State Historical Society. 



««-<>««;«« 



ALSO 



Many authorities and documents relating 
to The New England Emigrant Aid Com- 
pany and its transactions in Kansas* « « 



By WILLIAM ELSEY CONNELLEY 



AUTHOR OF 



John Brown," "James H. Lane," "Memoir 
of John J. Ingalls," etc., etc. 



L 



TOPEKA, KANSAS. 

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 

1903, 



PRINTPD BY CRANE i COWPANY, TOPEKA, KANSAS. 



..^ml 




Class Y i'h S 
Pnnk ,(^751 



i 



AN APPEAL 

TO THE RECORD 



BEINa 



Quotations from Historical Documents and the Kansas 

Territorial Press, Refuting ''False Claims" and 

other things written for and at the instance 

of Charles Robinson by G. W. Brown. 



AND 



Some portions of the Public Records of Charles 

Robinson and G. W. Brown, taken from the 

Archives of the State Historical Society. 



ALSO 



Many Authorities and Documents relating to The New 
England Emigrant Aixi Company, ;£incl its . . 
Transactions iir Karisas. -^ '» '"'' ' - 



-o . »'>.■»•» 



By WILLIAM ELSEY CONNELLEY, 

Author of "John Brown," "James H. Lane," "Memoir of John J. Ingalls," 

Etc., etc. 



TOPEKA, KANSAS. 

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 

1903. 



. c r6-/ 



THt LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

MAR 10 '903 

Copyngni hn:r> 

CLASS Cu XXc. No. 

COPY B. 



Copyright 1903, by 
William E. Connelley, 




TOPKKA, KANSAS. 

CBAMX & COMPANY, PBINTEBS. 

1903. 



STATEMENT. 



In the year 1900 I wrote Si^Life of John Brown. It was pub- 
lished by Crane & Company, Topeka. It was recognized by re- 
viewers and writers ever^whe're'^as a work of high order, written 
on true historical lines, one which sought to elevate the writing 
of Kansas history from the degradation of mere personal abuse 
of individuals to which it had been trampled by Thayer, Robin- 
son, and, at the instigation of the latter, G. W. Brown. The 
Robinson influence was not satisfied with my book. G. W. 
Brown had defamed Kansas history and those who strove against 
the border ruffians on our fair prairies to uplift humanity and 
erect here a great State dedicated to human liberty. When my 
book appeared, there was deep silence at Lawrence, but recourse 
was had to thi^ man Browm : he was instigated to again attack 
with malice those who fought back the ruffians from our borders 
and raised Kansas to the stars through difficulties. The result 
is a volume of 158 pages, entitled " False Claims," by G. W. 
Brown, in which I am called a liar some hundreds of times 
" in argument.'' Each member of the Legislature has been pre- 
sented with a copy by one who shall remain nameless by me, 
and the donor has been thanked for the act of generosity. The 
design which prompted the gift was not a generous one. It had 
for its object the distribution of a work prepared by an histori- 

(3) 



cal lago who seeks to pollute the fair fountain from which the 
pure current of Kansas history runs, and make it a foul cistern 
for toads to knot and gender in. 

The question sought to be injected into Kansas history by the 
book and the influence which instigated it is: Shall a man, 
otherwise entitled to mention, be denied credit for meritorious 
action because his private life was not holy? This is the rule 
insisted upon by the Pharisaical action of Eobinson, Thayer, 
and G. W. Brown, in reference to James H. Lane, John Brown, 
William Lloyd Garrison, T. Dwight Thacher, William A. Phil- 
lips, Richard J. Hinton, John Speer, Theodore Parker, Wendell 
Phillips, and hundreds more who fought, talked, and wrote for 
the cause of liberty in Kansas. They are denounced as the 
lowest types of human depravity by these self-constituted holy 
men. Kansas had no truer friend than Horace Greeley in her 
struggles of Territorial times, but he and President Lincoln 
are abused and vilified as are the others. The cause for all 
this ruffianly treatment is that the parties did not agree with 
Robinson and Thayer in their course in Kansas in Territorial 
days. 

In 1879 there was held a meeting of old settlers at Bismarck 
Grove, near Lawrence. Robinson and G. W. Brown attended, 
and quarreled openly and vulgarly. They were of the same 
nature and envious disposition, however, and left the meeting 
deeply chagrined. They had ^^ heard repeatedly, during the 
two days the convention was in session, the principal character 
in these pages [John Brown] lauded as the person of all others 
to whom Kansas is indebted for her rescue from slavery, and 
learned that a monument had been erected to his memory, at 
Osawatomie, and that it was proposed to send a statue of him 



to Washington to adorn the National Capitol, and perpetuate 
his renown." This was more than they could bear, and in 
their jealous envy and malice, conspired to begin a systematic 
jcourse of blackening the characters of those from whom Kobin- 
son had dissented in his erratic career in Kansas. 

The evidence of this conspiracy is contained in the prelimi- 
nary statements of the first book which resulted, The Reminis- 
cences of Old John Brown, by G. W. Brown, in the writings 
of Thayer, Robinson, and Brown, and the subsequent admis- 
sions of Brown. These preliminary statements are made up 
of letters which passed between Robinson and Brown. Rob- 
inson wrote an open letter to Bro^vn and published it in the 
Lawrence Journal; it was dated September 22, 1879, and 
recites that the writer had heard the praises for Lane. He 
pretends great solicitude for the places Lane and John Brown 
should be accorded by history-writers, and requests G. W. 
Brown to take up his pen and settle the matter. !N^o reference 
is made to any private arrangement entered into while Brown 
was at Lawrence; and he expresses the proper amount of sur- 
prise that the letter was written. He replied October 10, and 
agTeed to wviIq a series of '' facts, as seen from my own stand- 
point." This forecast of their nature was strictly maintained ; 
very little regard was shown for facts that actually occurred. 
Robinson wrote a book, and dedicated it to Eli Thayer ; Thayer 
wrote a book, and dedicated it to Charles Robinson. They re- 
garded it as unnecessary to dedicate any books to Brown; his 
remuneration must have been of a different nature, and we 
advise the reader to study what the Territorial press insists is 
his strongest characteristic before deciding the quality of it. 

The books of the trio are all cast on the same lines. All who 



differed from the respective authors in Territorial and Civil 
War times are promptly set down as traitors, whether they 
lived in Kansas or elsewhere. The salvation of Kansas was 
claimed by each as the result of his efforts aided by the other 
two. Egotism and self-righteousness are the strongest features 
of the books, after the abuse of contemporaries who did not 
agree with them. Private and public holiness is insisted upon 
as a prerequisite to receiving credit for anything done for 
Kansas during the times described. All improper actions of the 
men who fought while the writers sulked or skulked were 
paraded, magnified, multiplied, misrepresented, set in a col- 
umn, conned by rote, flung in the teeth of the people, and a 
verdict rendered that these particular characters, being impure, 
or at least not holy like the authors, must be denounced as de- 
praved and consigned to oblivion. This rule was made to apply, 
so far as it was possible, to anyone having a word to say in favor 
of the condemned men or any deeds they or any of them did for 
Kansas or humanity. G. W. Brown was but a tool from the 
first. He deals in epithets. He is irascible and intolerant. No 
difference of opinion from the " facts, as seen from my stand- 
point '' can be permitted by him. His stock argument is, " You 
are a liar ! " This he calls correcting history. Under the 
proper heading will be found the record he made for himself in 
Kansas, as I have taken it from the press of that day. It 
is not made up of " facts, as seen from my standpoint," but of 
facts recorded by honest men who were on the ground and knew 
him as he was. 

In condemning the course of these history-writers for their 
claims of self-righteousness and their Pharisaical denuncia- 
tion of wrong in other men; I do not want to be misunderstood. 



I believe a man should be correct in his conduct in both private 
and public life. I do not justify any man who claims a name 
in Kansas history in any wrong he may have committed, here 
or elsewhere. In my writings I have not claimed perfection 
for any public man, but have admitted faults where they exist. 
I have said no man is always right. What I condemn is the 
hypocrisy and false position of Thayer, Robinson, and G. W. 
Brown. But theirs was a bold stroke, one made necessary by 
conditions. They could observe little inclination in the people 
of Kansas who knew them in their day to make heroes of them. 
They had not heard, at the Old Settlers' meeting, any mention 
of a monument either erected or proposed to any of them, and 
so far as they could discern, there was little disposition to send 
a statue of either of them to Washington or elsewhere to adorn 
anything. As nothing was tendered them, they determined to 
pose as hero-martyrs, blacken all actions not their own and all 
men but themselves, and prevent a statue of anyone being sent 
to Washington. Being rejected by their own generation, they 
resolved to appeal in the manner and by the methods described 
herein to a later one, believing the lapse of years had concealed 
their true records to that degree that the ncAV ones they pro- 
fessed might be accepted as genuine. Hence, in their later 
writings the Emigrant Aid Company was changed from a trust 
for speculation to a benevolent institution, with free Kansas as 
its only object. It was not supposed that a large sum unac- 
counted for ($80,000, some say) would ever be inquired about, 
and it was believed that their jobbing in its stock would not be 
discovered. Bobinson's general corruption in office and the 
bond swindles of his administration as '^ War " Governor of 
Kansas he hoped to explain as deeds for the preservation of the 



8 

Union; the women with whom he had sported along the waj 
he believed he had satisfied and concealed. The scandals in the 
social life of GT. W. Brown at Lawrence, and his actions towards 
the Free-State party, characterized by Senator Ingalls as the 
act of a Judas Iscariot, he believed buried by long residence in 
another State. It is strange that such a course could have been 
adopted by these men towards those who fought and suffered 
privations, death and indignities for the cause of freedom in 
Kansas. What is more strange is the fact that they themselves 
were most guilty of the actions charged against others as the 
sum total of criminal de^Dravity. On receipt of Brown's book 
I wrote him : 

"Did you ever read of the men who threw no stones at the 
woman, thou holy man? I believe you and Robinson would 
have refrained from throwing on an entirely different ground 
from that set down in Holy Writ, and would have followed the 
woman home." 

In this book Brown suggests a picture having me in the back- 
ground fulminating lies about him. It is to have every horrible 
inference and reality an imagination warped to a bloody tend- 
ency could conceive. In the letter alluded to above I suggested 
a statue something like the following: 

Thayer with a bag of money labeled, " Emigrant Aid Com- 
pany, $80,000." Robinson with a bag of money under one arm 
and a woman under the other. G. W. Brown, with the woman 
who wrote the Paola letter under his arm, crowning the other 
two with brass halos, while his wife, who w^as cast overboard, 
weeps in the background in an agony of tears. The legend 
should be : " Holy men ! Holy historians and history-makers — 
and some money — and some women ! " 



I have no desire whatever to do these men any injustice. 
But I have collected herein some part of the public record made 
by them and written by themselves and their contemporaries. 
There remain volumes of it not given, open to all who care to 
look through the precious archives of our Historical Society. 
I believe the standard set up by these men by which to condemn 
their fellows to be a false one. I believe their private lives 
have nothing to do with the history of Kansas, unless public 
acts can be shown as the result of private course inimical to 
the interests of the State. If the position taken by them should 
result in their being hanged on the gallows of their own build- 
ing, who is to blame ? If they did anything here for liberty I 
believe they should have full credit for it. I am writing an 
account of the public acts of "General James H. Lane ; in that 
work I shall try to deal fairly by every man who fought for 
what we believe here to have been the right. I did that in my 
Joli7i Broiun. I w^ould not deprive Thayer or Robinson or 
G. W. Brown of a syllable of the history of Kansas to which 
they are justly entitled ; and I believe that they should be given 
all they are entitled to. Their books are worthless, or nearly 
so, because of the faults referred to. And Thayer's book has 
the further faults of unreliability and pompous egotism; he 
does not directly claim to have created the soil, prairies, streams, 
and resources of Kansas: these claims were probably reserved 
for a second volume. Robinson's book, in addition to other 
shortcomings, is written in the spirit of bitter malignity always 
found in the works of a disappointed and repudiated man. 

I desire to call attention to still another admission of G. W. 
Bro^^m, which goes to establish w^hat is alleged as the motive 
for a conspiracy against Kansas Free-State men who conscien- 



10 

tiously differed from the holy trio. On page 29, "False 
Claims," G. W. Brown says : " Those who knew of these mur- 
ders [John Bro^vn's killing the ^Ye men on the Pottawatomie] 
. . . did not deem it wise to expose him, and would not have 
done so at all, if his devotees had not labored to rob deserving 
men of merited fame.'' 

Is not this a strange admission for a man who claims a place 
in Kansas history because of the holiness of his private and 
public life, at the same time denouncing other men who fought 
for Kansas, because their lives were, as he alleges, incorrect? 
He admits that he knew the crime of murder had been com- 
mitted, and that he was willing to conceal it. In law he that 
conceals a crime is an accessory and guilty of the crime he con- 
ceals. In the moral law he is still more guilty. G. W. Brown, 
page 124, " False Claims," without thought that it could be 
applied to his own course, quotes the following on this subject: 
" He who glorifies crime, or connives at its concealment, is 
guilty of moral perjury, and deserves not only the censure but 
hatred of every lover of justice." Thus does he define his own 
status and write his own condemnation. And I desire to call 
attention particularly to the reason he assigns for exposing this 
crime of John Brown. He says he " would not have done so at 
all, if his devotees had not labored to rob deserving men of mer- 
ited fame." 

" Deserving men " must mean Thayer, Robinson, and G. W. 
Brown, in this instance, ^ow, the admission takes this form : 
If John Brown's biographers and the people who saw justice 
in his work had only said these " deserving men " did it all, 
and John Brown did nothing, stood for nothing, accomplished 
nothing, went nowhere, sacrificed nothing, was not honest in his 



11 

hatred of slavery and his concern for the poor and lowly, then 
these ^^ deserving men " would have concealed this crime for 
all time. That is the proposition as stated by G. W. Brown, 
not alone in this instance, but in all the preliminaries of his 
^^ Reminiscences of Old John Brown " ; and as he assumes to 
speak for the others and is used by them, it must be the agreed 
and main cause of the exposure. Can human action become 
more debased than this admission places the actions of these 
same '^ deserving men " ? 

The truth is as follows: John Brown never denied that he 
was responsible for the killing of the men on the Pottawatomie, 
but always said if it was murder he was not guiltless. The Re- 
port of the Congressional Committee was published in 1856, 
and everybody in the country knew the facts after that publica- 
tion ; in Kansas it was known on the day following the killing. 
G. W. Brown gave John Brown great praise in 1857 ; he pub- 
lished the whole matter in 1859, long before any Life of John 
Brown was written by anyone. All this hue-and-cry was raised 
by the " deserving men '' years afterward when they heard at 
the Old Settlers' meeting that it was proposed to place statues 
of John Brown and James H. Lane in Statuary Hall in Wash- 
ington. The " deserving men " desired to accomplish two ob- 
ject-s in their course, — to prevent the statues of John Brown 
and James H. Lane from being placed in Statuary Hall, and 
to turn attention from the management of the Emigrant Aid 
Company and the bond swindles of the administration of Charles 
Robinson when he was " War '' Governor of Kansas. It should 
be always borne in mind that these " deserving men " insist that 
they are entitled to all the glory of making Kansas free no more 
for what they actually did than for the purity and uprightness 



12 

of their public and private lives and tlie depravity of the lives 
of John Brown, James H. Lane, and others who were promi- 
nent in Territorial times ; the wi^itings of each of these ^^ de- 
serving men" are designed to establish that fact. 

In my John Brown I say that H. H. Williams carried the 
message from Pottawatomie to the camp of the Free-State men 
where Brown was at that time. G. W. Brown shows almost 
conchisively in his "False Claims" that he did not do so. 
In making the statement I followed recognized authorities and 
Spring. I am glad to have any error I made pointed out. I 
have always insisted that if indisputable facts could be pro- 
duced showing me in error, I would gladly make anything I 
have written conform to the facts sho^vn ; I say the same thing 
here and now. The only other point Brown supposed he had 
made against my book is a letter from Frank A. Hoot denying 
that he said something he alleges I attribute to him. In that 
part of this pamphlet referring to G. W. Brown the letter from 
Boot is dealt with. 

Many of the extracts quoted in this pamphlet are from the " 
Kansas Free-State, one of the very first anti-slavery papers es- 
tablished in Kansas Territory; it was published at Lawrence, 
and the first number was issued January 3, 1855. It was pat- 
riotic and uncompromising, always standing like a stone wall 
for freedom in Kansas. It was conservative and well balanced. 
It was broad and comprehensive in its .views and policy, and saw 
from the first that freedom would prevail in Kansas, not from 
artificial and promoted immigration from l^ew England, but 
from natural immigration from the States of the Ohio Valley 
and other Western States. It was calm, dispassionate, inde- 
pendent, and able; and it is the best index of the conditions 



13 

existing in Kansas in its day to be found in the archives of the 
Historical Society. It was destroyed by the border ruffians 
May 21, 1856, and was not revived. Its destruction was the 
greatest loss the Territory sustained in that invasion. The edi- 
tors were Josiah Miller, a South Carolinian, a man of fine 
mind and liberal education ; and R. G. Elliott, one of the ablest 
journalists Kansas ever had. Mr. Elliott lives yet in Lawrence, 
and his papers on Territorial times show greater ability and 
broader comprehension than any others I have found on their 
respective subjects. 

Desiring to quote only from papers of high standing and rec- 
ognized ability, I have taken a number of extracts from the 
Lawrence Republican. That those who may not be familiar 
with the early Kansas press may be fully informed of the stand- 
ing of that paper, I will say that it was edited from the first 
by T. Dwight Thacher, a man of college training, Puritan an- 
cestry, and correct principles. He was a brilliant writer and 
orator, and a man to the memory of whom Kansas owes much ; 
he was a pioneer of the sterling sort. In a memorial address, 
Rev. Dr. Cordley said of him : 

"In the spring of 185Y, therefore, he started for Kansas. 
On arriving he commenced the publication of the Lawrence 
Republican. Erom the very outset he made it one of the leading 
Eree-State papers of the Territory. He was anti-slavery from 
heredity, education, personal conviction. He based his opposi- 
tion on radical grounds. He had no apologies to offer, no com- 
promises to make. He believed slavery was wrong, and for that 
reason should not be permitted to enter Kansas. . . . His 
presence was like tonic to the Eree-State party. 

"Mr. Thacher was largely instrumental in forming the 
Republican party in Kansas. A number of men were in favor 
of keeping up the old Eree-State party, but Mr. Thacher' had 



14 

the sagacity to see that that was imj^ossible. The members of 
that party were hopelessly divided on nearly everything except 
the question of a free State in Kansas, ^ow that that question 
was settled there was no point of cohesion. The Republican 
party was the rising party of freedom in the nation at that time. 
Mr. Thacher believed in being in line with the larger movements 
of freedom in the whole country. He was therefore one of the 
prime movers in calling the convention which met in Osawato- 
mie May 18, 1859, and formed the Republican party in Kansas. 
He was chosen president of the convention, and had much to do 
with shaping its utterances. Horace Greeley was at this con- 
vention, and took great interest in the result." 

Both the papers quoted from were contemporaneous with 
the Herald of Freedom, the organ of the Emigrant Aid Com- 
pany, edited by G. W. Brown. The editors of each of the 
papers knew Brown in all his turbulent career in Kansas, and 
were well qualified to speak of him and his erratic course. 
They knew Robinson, the " War '' Governor, and the record of 
his administration, also his meanderings politically thereafter. 
They were competent to judge of the work done by the Emigrant 
Aid Company, and were always ready and willing to assist that 
institution in any legitimate work it might have in its indirect 
efforts to benefit Kansas. 

It may be urged that the humane rule, "nothing but good 
should be said of the dead,'' might well have been observed in 
discussing these old quarrels among the Free-State men. It 
would have been much better had there been no quarrel. Robin- 
son, Thayer and G. W. Brown were the original violators of the 
humane sentiment above referred to. Brown says in the ex- 
planatory portion of his " Reminiscences of Old John Brown " 
that a gentleman called on him in Rockford the day following 
the publication of bis reply to Robinson, and "requested me 



15 

to remember that John Brown and James H. Lane are dead, 
and that I should be humane in the treatment of these historic 
characters," BroA\Ti sajs he made the following ruthless and 
brutal reply : " I am writing facts for history, and ... I 
shall not withhold anything because they are dead, that is nec- 
essary to a truthful knowledge of their real characters." This 
matter of duty bore heavily in this valiant Quixote as he went 
forth to beffin the crusade for holiness in the lives of Kansas 
historic characters. '^ Is it less my duty, as a historian, to tell 
the truth because a man is dead ? " he cries in his holiest atti- 
tude; and with a Pecksnifhan countenance raised to heaven he 
devoutly and conscientiously adds: "Many names have come 
down as worthy exemplars for our imitation, who, were they 
living to-day, and practicing the vices and crimes they were 
hourly perpetrating, we would lose no time in closing the bars 
of a penitentiary on them, else execute them on the gallows." 

Two of these " names," he means us to know, are John Brown 
and James H. Lane ; and it is more than probable, if we are to 
believe the writings of Kobinson and Thayer, that some of the 
others are Abraham Lincoln, William Lloyd Garrison, Wen- 
dell Phillips, Charles Sumner, Gerrit Smith, Theodore Parker, 
Henry D. Thoreau, Lowell, Whittier, and every other man who 
ever cried to Heaven for justice to the black man and slave. 
With rueful and holy countenance this modern Heep regretfully 
adds as he gravely shakes his seraphic head and looks with 
sorrow on the tendency to depravity in human nature : " The 
best of characters had their frailties. These must be known to 
judge correctly of their worth." 

Robinson and Thayer acted upon the principle set down by 
G. W. Brown. John Brown and James _H. Lane left large fam- 
ilies. The wddow and orphans of Lane lived long in Lawrence 



16 

after his death. Was Robinson ever known to be considerate 
of their feelings ? Did he refrain on their account or because 
Lane was dead and could not reply and speak for himself, from 
the vilest abuse and most brutal and heartless accusations? He 
did not. Lane, after his death, was daily accused by Robinson 
of murder, the violation of innocence, rapine, organized murder 
in Missouri, robbery, obtaining money by illegal and dishonest 
methods, intimacy with lewd women, and such depravity in 
every walk of life and every relation in society as no other man 
in Kansas was ever charged with; and Robinson ends finally 
by charging Lane with complicity in the Quantrill massacre, — 
that he acted, with Senator Plumb, as an escort to Quantrill 
and his men as they returned to Missouri. Every syllable of 
the above charge against Robinson can be verified by an exam- 
ination of his new^spaper articles and his book, which I cite now 
in toto. I cite Thayer's Kansas Crusade to prove that he was 
a party to all this. I cite the above books and ^^ The Reminis- 
cences of Old John Bro\\Ti " by G. W. Bro^vn, to prove that the 
three of them pursued precisely the same course toward the 
family of John BrowTi they did to that of Lane. And it is 
apparent on their pages that there was no desire to record the 
truth of history ; the main purpose was to make a great place in 
Kansas history for these crusaders for holiness. That this 
course continues to this day, the book to w^hich this pamphlet 
is an answer is proof; and Kansas; Its Exterior and Interior 
Life, has been "revised" and filled with venom toward John 
Brown. Where there is a word in his favor in Townsley's state- 
ment, it is cut out, and the marks to indicate that the quotations 
are not given entire, are omitted ; and in violation of all liter- 
ary rules, the impression is left that the document is quoted 
complete so far as given. 



CHARLES ROBINSON. 



Charles Robinson came to Kansas as the agent of the ISTew 
England Emigrant Aid Company. His salary, as shown by the 
books of the company, was $1000 a year. From the day of his 
arrival he sought political preferment, and he remained a per- 
sistent office-seeker until his death. His chief object appears, 
however, to have been the accumulation of wealth. In this he 
was very successful ; and if the record he has left can be at all 
relied upon and is even approximately accurate, he was unscru- 
pulous in this pursuit to a remarkable degree. He was involved 
in social scandals during the most of his residence in Kansas. 
The particulars of these scandals reveal a mind hopelessly de- 
moralized on the subject of purity and virtue of woman. The 
circumstances of his relations to a number of women are well 
known to the people of Lawrence, and they have related them to 
me. They are unfit for publication, and can be alluded to in 
general terms only. The case of a lady now supposed to be 
living in Cambridge, Mass., is perhaps the most notorious. 
Judge A. H. Horton, long Chief Justice of the Kansas Supreme 
Court, has related to several people in Kansas a strange inci- 
dent which occurred when he was once visiting St. Louis, and 
the incident concerned Governor Robinson's relations with 
women. 

I have insisted that the private life of a public man has 

(17) 



18 

nothing whatever to do in weighing his public acts, as long 
as they do not influence or control such public acts. By this 
rule Governor Robinson's private actions have no relation to 
his public life, and can be legitimately considered only when we 
seek an estimate of his character as a man and unit of society, 
unless origin of public wrong can be shown therein. I believe 
these the true principles to be observed in every instance by a 
writer who seeks to make an impartial record for posterity. 
Governor Eobinson violated these principles by attacking in 
public prints the private characters of public men contemporary 
with him. He was extremely bitter, vindictive, cruel, harsh, 
and unreasonable in his attacks, and he persevered in them to 
his death. The strange feature of the matter is that his most 
violent animosities toward other public men seemed to result 
from alleged acts in them of which he was himself also most 
guilty. Lane was attacked for procuring money by dishonest 
methods and for his immoral relations with women. Himself 
the first advocate of violent and armed resistance to the Mis- 
sourians (having of his own motion ordered the first supply of 
Sharps rifles from I^ew England), both Lane and Brown were 
held up to public scorn as robbers and thieves and murderers, 
devoid of every principle of humanity when they acted upon 
the theory first announced by him as the line along which Kansas 
freedom could alone be achieved. True, he afterward gave little 
support to the principle he inaugurated, and which in the end 
brought inconceivable woe upon the people, finally proving erro- 
neous, Kansas gaining her freedom through the growth from 
natural causes of her anti-slavery population. Lane and other 
conservative men opposed armed resistance, but when it brought 
on all the horrors of civil war, the task of defending the settlers 



19 

of the Territory and saving Kansas from annihilation devolved 
upon them. For not allowing the Territory to remain in pos- 
session of the ruffians and in the thralldom to the slave power 
resulting from his own policy, projected contrary to the best 
judgment of the conservative element, they were denounced by 
him for nearly forty years and long after they were in their 
graves, as villains worse than savages. He was relentless and 
implacable in his enmity toward Lane; and his bitterness 
toward John Brown and his family assumed the form of malice 
and acrimonious revenge. 

As an official he was incapable of formulating a public policy 
embracing the best interests of the State. His administration 
as Governor was cast on petty and personal lines, with loot and 
individual gain as the predominating ideas. Public scandal was 
rampant, and he was at war with both the policy and the public 
men of state and nation during his term of office. He retired 
with the denunciations of his party and execrations of the 
people, and was ever afterward a political nonenity, though a 
persistent office-seeker, and in every party and faction in the 
State, at some time during the remainder of his life. 

But notwithstanding all these shortcomings he has connected 
his name with the State and its history. In the devious and 
sinuous ways natural to him he added something to the cause 
which resulted in freedom for Kansas. While this sum was 
not so great, in my opinion, as that contributed by others, it 
was considerable. I would not detract a single iota from what- 
ever may be due him for his actions in those days of peril to free 
institutions in America. As in the case of every public offi- 
cial, he must stand or fall by the public record he made, and 
not by the flattery of sycophants purchased by his money. 



20 

For daring to raise my voice and employ my pen for justice 
and fair dealing toward one of the objects of his vengeance, and 
for discussing his public record in courteous and respectable 
language, the services of an insignificant and turbulent old 
blackguard are invoked to discredit me as a writer of Kansas 
history. Such intolerance belongs to the dark ages, and was in- 
troduced into Kansas history-writing by Eobinson, as G. W. 
Brown now admits. One would not expect to find it in free 
and enlightened Kansas at this time. People should know that 
public men and public measures are legitimate subjects for dis- 
cussion. If, here in Kansas, all the wealth the State supposed 
it would get from the Robinson estate for use of the University 
is to be employed to vilify anyone who dares to criticize the 
public acts of Robinson and Thayer or differ from them in the 
estimates they place on themselves and their measures, where is 
your freedom of speech and press ? Has not such malevolent 
minacity become impertinent insolence and audacious arro- 
gance ? I think so. This pamphlet is written primarily to show 
it never had cause or reason for existence here. The men who 
fought to establish Kansas were like other men. They, one and 
all, had their virtues and their faults. It is to be regretted that 
the faults have been so much emphasized here; but if stress 
must be placed upon them, let it be done for all the history- 
makers alike. It ought not to be considered a crime to discuss 
their public acts and public writings ; but the Robinson influ- 
ence so regards it so far as the discussion of the acts and writings 
of Thayer and Robinson are concerned. And to say a word in 
defense of Brown or Lane or any other Free-State man promi- 
nent in Territorial days (for Robinson quarreled with almost 
all of them) is even a greater crime. 



21 

The theory upon which Robinson acted, and upon which his 
successors act, is this: Claim everything for Robinson and 
Thayer; denounce, vilify, blacken, and defame the other char- 
acters of Kansas Territorial times at all prominent; and in- 
clude President Lincoln, William Lloyd Garrison, Theodore 
Parker, and any other man opposed to slavery ; and do not for- 
get that this rule applies to anyone raising a voice or holding 
a pen for these men. 

Only a small portion of the record of Robinson is given here, 
taken from the records, books, and public prints of the times, 
except the extracts from the manuscript of Hon. John Speer, 
which is of a quasi-public nature, and can be seen in the library 
of the State Historical Society. The George A. Crawford 
papers, now in my possession, contain statements very deroga- 
tory to Robinson, but I publish none of them at this time. 

The abuse heaped upon Robinson by G. W. Brown is given to 
show the truckling sycophancy of the man. He now writes vile 
abuse of anyone who dares to criticize in a fair manner the 
public and official acts of Robinson. The reader must form 
his own opinion of a man so turbulent, avaricious, unstable, vio- 
lent, inconsistent, salacious, and obsequious as Brown has shown 
himself to be. 

The conduct of Robinson on the day of the Quantrill massacre 
at Lawrence must be considered by his future biographers. He 
understood this, and opened the way for it by his usual method. 
He wrote an explanatory apology and sought to implicate Gen- 
eral Lane and Senator Plumb. In his bitterest way he charges 
that they escorted Quantrill back to Missouri with due consid- 
eration, without firing a gun or injuring a man. This is only 
defamatory; he knew it was untrue; it is refuted by Major 



22 . 

Edwards, QuantrilPs biographer. In this Quantrill matter the 
record is given without comment. It was the most horrible and 
shocking thing in the Civil War, and I am collecting informa- 
tion in relation to it from every available source ; I shall write 
a small work on the subject at no distant day. A map of Law- 
rence was prepared and marked for QuantrilFs use; property 
to be destroyed was designated on that map. A list of those to 
be slain was made out before Quantrill left Missouri ; the loca- 
tion of their residences and their personal descriptions were 
recorded; the names of the children of Hon. John Speer, and 
perhaps others, were on the list. The map and list (or a copy 
of the list) are believed to be yet in existence, in the State of 
Tennessee; and there is now a possibility • that I may secure 
them for the Historical Society. 



I. 

HOW ROBINSON MADE MONEY. 

"Here is in for Making the Tin" — Robinson's Toast Drank with 

Hon. James F. Legate. 

The following article relating to the bond swindles of Gov- 
ernor Robinson's administration is reprinted (almost entire) 
from the Lawrence Daily Journal, of October 28, 1884. The 
article is composed principally of extracts from the official rec- 
ord of Robinson's impeachment trial. Robinson was at the time 
of its publication a candidate for office in Douglas county. 
The paper was published by Thacher & Webster. 



23 

[ From the Lawrence Daily Journal^ October 28, 1884.'\ 

OLD STORIES RETOLD — A FEW EVENTS IN THE POLITICAL 
CAREER OF EX-GOVERNOR CHAS. ROBINSON. 
. . . He disclaims belonging to any political party, and says he is a 
political bushwhacker. Would it not be more appropriate to say a political 
moral and social bushwhacker? One who, like the Irishman we read of, hits 
a head whenever he sees it. He has bushwhacked nearly everybody and 
everything, living and dead, and from the saloon to the pulpit, and even 
went so far as to applaud and laugh at the rantings of a speaker at the 
Liberal convention at Ottawa, who denounced Mary, the mother of Christ, 
as a prostitute, and no better than any other prostitute. Such demonstra- 
tions may in the Governor's judgment be very smart and very cunning, but 
it was certainly not in very good taste for an ex-Governor of the young State 
of Kansas to make such a spectacle. Before his settlement in Kansas he 
w^as a practicing physician of limited practice, and not as abundantly en- 
dowed with this world's goods as at present, and came to Kansas as the paid 
agent of the New England Emigrant Aid Company at a salary of $1000 per 
year, and came as hundreds of others did, viz., to make money. To James F. 
Legate, of Leavenworth, he denied coming for any other purpose, and drank 
a toast with that gentleman as follows : " Here is in for making the tin." 
No man in the State amongst the early settlers was as successful as the 
Governor in that direction, as his present surroundings show. 

The 21st of May, 1856, Raid Claims. 

On the 21st of May, 1856, a pro-slavery sheriff of Douglas county at the 
head of a pro-slavery mob of five or six hundred persons burnt the Eldridge 
House and Governor Robinson's residence. 

In 1857 the Territorial Legislature appointed one H. J. Strickler to audit 
the claims for damages for losses occasioned by the border troubles of that 
time between the Pro-Slavery and Free-State parties. Gov. Robinson ap- 
peared before this commissioner and put in the following claim : 

Copy from the Kansas Claims, Volume 1, Page 108, Case No. 61. 

To the Hon. H. J. Strickler, Commissioner for Auditing Claims under the 
provisions of An Act to provide for the Auditing of Claims, and the Act sup- 
plemental thereto, passed and approved February 23, 1857: Your peti- 
tioner, Charles Robinson, of Douglas county, Kansas Territory, respectfully 
shows that your petitioner as hereinafter stated was engaged as an agent in 
said county; that on the 21st day of May. A. D. 1856, your petitioner, then 
living in said county; that on the day and year above mentioned there was 



24 

taken from the possession of your petitioner, by some men who were said to 
belong to the Territorial militia and marshal's posse, whose names are 
entirely unknown to your petitioner, the following, which is fully set forth 
in a schedule hereto annexed, and valued at fifteen thousand and eight hun- 
dred dollars; and your petitioner further states that he has not received 
any pay from any person or persons for the same. Your petitioner therefore 
prays that he may receive the sum of fifteen thousand eight hundred dollars 
for the loss which he has sustained, as is set forth in the foregoing petition, 
and that the same may be paid therefor pursuant to the statutes made and 
provided in such cases. And for such further relief as your petitioner is 
entitled to in the premises. C. Exjbinson. 

Subscribed and sworn to before me, D. H. Weir, a notary public, on this 
17th day of November, A. D. 1857. 

[l. s.] D. H. Weir, Notary Public. 

SCHEDULE. 

One frame house 13,500 

Barn, hay, stable, and furniture 1,500 

House furniture 3,000 

Library 3,000 

Medical library and surgical instruments 1,500 

Clothing, jewelry, and private papers 3,000 

Furniture in hotel and used by Congressional Committee 600 

One Porter's rifle 40 

Two Sharps' rifles 70 

Two Colt's revolvers 40 

One horse stolen 150 

Two horses poisoned 400 

$15,800 
False imprisonment four months $10,000 

If that schedule, made and sworn to by that honest old Governor, does 
not produce a smile on his countenance, it will produce one on the face of 
every old settler who can bring before his mind's eye that little frame house 
that stood on the hillside, in size about 14 x 20 feet, 10-foot studding, made 
of native lumber, and cost about $400, and especially the clothing and jewelry 
items, when we consider how much of a dude the Governor is. Then the 
furniture bill, $3600; $3000 in his house and $600 loaned out to Col. Eldridge 
to enable him to accommodate at the Eldridge House the investigation com- 
mittee of three. 

Another party swore that they had loaned $500 worth of furniture to 
accommodate this committee of three. The Governor also swears before that 
same committee, on behalf of Col. Eldridge, that the Eldridge House was 
furnished better than any hotel in St. Louis, and his furniture was worth at 
least $14,212. One would ask, did that committee need all that furniture, 
or did some one lie? Then his item of barn, hay, etc., $1500. Aside from the 
Eldridge House barn and the stage barn, it is a question if all the barns in 
the county, at that time, cost the half of $1500; $100 would have been a big 
price for the barn. At the present time the Governor lives in one of the 



25 

finest houses in the county, which must have cost seven or eight thousand 
dollars, and is furnished accordingly; yet, in his tax list for last year, he 
lists his household furniture at $50. Quite a difference. It looks as if the 
Governor schedules his property to suit the occasion. To appreciate the 
furniture oath, it is only necessary for the reader to have some idea of the 
way our houses were furnished at that time. Except the Eldridge House and 
the National Hotel at Lecompton, it is a question if there was $3600 worth 
of household furniture in the county. 

If the above does not entitle the Governor to the belt as the champion 
truth-teller of Kansas, then there is no use in having a champion's belt; yet 
he is very free in applying the word liar to that immortal old martyr, John 
Brown, when discussing the old hero's record. To illustrate the elegance of 
our household furniture in those days, we will quote some extracts from 
Horace Greeley's correspondence to the New York Tribune, who three years 
later than this time made an overland trip to California. In May, 1859, 
Mr. Greeley writes from Leavenworth as follows : " The twin curses of 
Kansas, now that the border ruffians have stopped ravaging her, are land 
speculators and one-horse politicians." The latter, he says, " gravitate irre- 
sistibly toward the sham Democracy, in whose embrace the whole tribe will 
bring up sooner or later." (He proved to be quite a prophet so far as the 
Governor is concerned.) 

In an overland letter written from the plains, Mr. Greeley said: 

" I believe I have now descended the ladder of artificial life nearly to its 
lowest round. . . . The progress I have made during the last fortnight 
towards the primature of human existence may be roughly noted thus : May 
12, Chicago, chocolate and morning newspapers last seen on the breakfast- 
table; 23d, Leavenworth, room-bells and baths make their last appearance; 
24th, Topeka, beefsteak and washbowls ( other than tin ) last visible — 
barber, ditto; 26th, Manhattan, potatoes and eggs last recognized among the 
blessings that brighten as they take their fiight; Junction City, last visita- 
tion of a bootblack, with dissolving views of a broad bedroom — chairs bid 
us good-by; 28th, Pipe Creek, benches for seats at meals have disappeared, 
giving place to bags and boxes. We write our letters in the express wagon 
that has borne us all day and must supply us lodgings for the night," 

If the above is a specimen of Kansas household furniture in 1859, the 
reader can imagine what it was in 1856, the time of which the Governor 
swore. 

In the spring of 1859 a new commission to audit these same claims was 
appointed, consisting of Samuel A, Kingman, Edward Hoogland, H. J. 
Adams, before whom our sturdy old Governor appeared, having seen how 
easy it was to swear in imaginary claims and have them allowed, concluded 



26 

to try his hand at it again, and put in the following bill, and did not hesitate 
to swear to its truthfulness: 

SCHEDULE. 

A manuscript history of California $3,500 

A manuscript work on anatomy and physiology, ready for the press 2,500 

A series of popular lectures on the above subjects 1^000 

$7,000 
The commissioners awarded him as follows: 

Strickler's award confirmed $15,800 

Interest on same 2,370 

Three manuscript works 5,029 

Interest on same 754 

$23,953 

He had already put on file a bill for $3000 for clothing, jewelry, and 
private papers. In what way had these papers increased in value since 1857, 
if they were not included in the original bill? Why not, if they had any 
value ? 

If the value of that manuscript of California history and medical lecture 
is to be estimated by the value of the trash the Governor publishes in the 
Lawrence Herald, its value would be one-fourth of a cent per pound for 
waste paper. If a man could buy the Governor's manuscript and his reputa- 
tion for truthfulness and integrity at what they are really worth and sell 
them at the Governor's valuation, the transaction would leave the investor a 
richer man than Jay Gould or Vanderbilt. The commissioners awarded the 
Governor an additional $7253, and for which they gave him a certificate, 
which he gave to the Territorial Auditor in exchange for w^arrants, and by a 
kind of persuasion peculiar to the Governor, the Territorial Treasurer was 
induced to give Territorial bonds in exchange for his warrants, which he 
had no right to do. (For which act the Governor afterwards rewarded him 
by giving him a commission as colonel of the Second Kansas Regiment.) 
These Territorial bonds that had been voted were to pay the current expenses 
of the Territorial Government, and not to pay these award certificates, as it 
was understood that the Territory only assumed the indebtedness as a matter 
of form, with the expectation that they would be paid by the General Gov- 
ernment when we were admitted as a State. No man in the Territory knew 
this fact better than Governor Robinson, when he gathered in those bonds 
to the amount of $24,000. This questionable transaction was evidently a 
collusion of the parties connected to rob the Territory of its bonds under the 
color of law. But the color was so thin that none but the parties in collusion 
could see it. 

The county and Territorial conventions of both parties denounced by 
resolution the actors therein. The Territorial Legislature denounced the 



27 

transaction, and by act refused to make the Territory responsible for this 
debt. The first State Legislature, in 1861, took similar action. The Repub- 
lican State Convention held at Lawrence, April 11, 1860, to elect delegates 
to the National Convention to be held at Chicago passed the following reso- 
lutions : 

Whereas, The executive officers of this Territory have issued a large 
amount of bonds and warrants, purporting to be based upon certain claims 
for losses during the war and troubles in Kansas, and in satisfaction of 
said claims: therefore. 

Resolved, That we believe said bonds and warrants were issued without 
authority of law, and that the issue thereof involves a gross act of infidelity 
on the part of public officers to the people of the Territory and a fraud upon 
the public. 

Resolved, That while we recognize the validity of the claims aforesaid as 
against the General Government, so far as they have been or may be estab- 
lished by authority of law, we denounce as unjust and absurd any attempt 
that has been made to collect the first dime of the amount from the people 
of the Territory. 

These resolutions were published in the newspapers from one end of the 
country to the other, which rendered these bonds valueless. Some of them 
had been sold, and the parties buying them had to suffer the loss of all they 
had invested in them. H. S. Walsh, the Pro-Slavery Territorial Secretary, 
to his everlasting honor refused to sign these stolen bonds. He said he 
would sooner suffer his right arm to be cut from his body — which shows 
that we had one honest man in the Territorial Government, and that one a 
pronounced Pro-Slavery man. These bonds were sold in New York, and the 
manner in which they were sold is a standing monument of infamy to all 
the parties concerned, which ought to have consigned them to the peniten- 
tiary. They deposited the bonds in New York, where they were made paya- 
ble, and without a dollar's appropriation to pay them with. They employed 
an agent to pay the first coupons with their own money, under the pretext 
that he was acting for the Territory, and then had it announced on the 
Stock Exchange that young Kansas had promptly, to a day, paid her first 
interest on all her bonds, and then took back from the broker their own 
money and destroyed the coupons. By this dishonest transaction, the stock 
brokers to whom Gov. Robinson sold his fraudulent bonds (the Thompson 
Bros., publishers of Thompson's Bank Note Detector, doing business at 
No. 2 Wall street) were induced to invest in these bonds. Thaddeus H. 
Walker, who had introduced Gov. Robinson to the Thompson Bros., was 
for a long time suspected as a party to this transaction, and suffered without 
eause from this outrage, — he not suspecting that Gov. Robinson would sell 



28 

Kansas bonds that had been fraudulently obtained, were illegal, and would 
never be paid. 

Query: Does not this transaction account for the Governor's 2160-acre 
farm being in the name of Martha Robinson? 

Robinson in the Legislature. 

Since this time, Governor Robinson has been in the State Senate and 
House on different occasions, and each time he has been there he has en- 
deavored to have a bill passed by the Legislature (but always covered up 
by other matters), to legalize and make provision for the payment of these 
fraudulent bonds, and on one occasion came very near doing so; but the Hon. 
Elijah Sells, member in the Legislature from the Palmyra district, saw the 
little joker and exposed the transaction, thus causing its defeat. From that 
time to the present we have not had a Governor that would sign such a 
bill, if passed. It was a more barefaced and infamous steal than the Gal- 
veston Railroad bond steal. 

Thieves and Swindlers Rob the State to the Amount of $50,000. 
Governor Robinson impeaifhed hy a unanimous vote of the lower house, hut 
gets of with the Scotch verdict of not proven, hy the Senate. — The Sec- 
retary of State and Auditor unceremoniously kicked out of office, one of 
whom dies of a broken heart; one lost to fame; one starts a whisky- 
shop in Chicago; the boss rogue lives on a 2160-acre farm on the hanks 
of the Kaio, and Kansas gets the name of " the rotten commonwealth J' 
January 29, 1861, the Territory was admitted into the Federal Union as 
a State, and the first Legislature voted a series of bonds, and appointed a 
committee consisting of Chas. Robinson, Governor, John W. Robinson, Sec- 
retary of State, and Geo. S. Hillyer, Auditor, to negotiate their sale. 

This forms another chapter of the many crooked transactions in which 
the Governor's good name has been mixed. 

The full history of this new bond steal is set forth in a 

report 

Of the special committee appointed by the House of Representatives to in- 
vestigate the accounts of the Auditor and Treasurer of State, the sale of 
bonds of the State of Kansas, etc., etc., January 30, 1862. 
The special committee, to whom was committed the duty of investigating 

the sale of Kansas State bonds, and the accounts of the State Auditor and 

Treasurer, beg leave to submit the following report: 

On Thursday, the 30th day of January, 1862, the House of Representa- 



29 

tives adopted the following preamble and 'resolution, from which your com- 
mittee derive their authority, to wit: 

"Whereas, It appears from the reports of the Auditor and Treasurer of 
State that a certain amount of the bonds of the State has been disposed 
of ; and 

"Whereas, Said reports do not fully set forth a detailed statement of the 
facts in relation thereto: therefore, 

"Resolved, That a special committee of five be appointed by the chair to 
examine and investigate the accounts of the Auditor and Treasurer of State, 
and to ascertain all the facts connected with the sale of bonds of the State 
of Kansas, the disposition of the proceeds thereof; what amount of scrip has 
been issued; what amount redeemed, and what amount has been bonded; 
what amount of bonds are remaining on hand and unsold; and whether 
or not State officers have been speculating in the indebtedness of the State 
of Kansas, — with full power and authority to send for persons and papers, 
and with instructions to report at an early day." 

Before proceeding to call testimony touching the subject-matter of in- 
vestigation, it was deemed best to make a careful examination of the different 
statutes of the State in relation thereto. They find that an act was passed by 
the last Legislature and approved May 3, 1861, authorizing certain persons, 
to wit, Austin M. Clark and James C. Stone, to negotiate the sale of one 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars of the bonds of the State, and report to 
the Legislature, within seventy days, their acts in the premises. By refer- 
ence to the journals of the last session, and on page 382, it will be seen 
that they did report that any attempt at that time to negotiate the sale of 
Kansas bonds would be utterly useless and unavailing. 

After receiving the report of said commissioners, an act was passed by the 
Legislature and approved June 7, 1861. supplementary to the first-named 
act, authorizing the sale of one hundred thousand dollars of the bonds of 
the State for not less than seventy cents on the dollar. This act gives 
authority to the Grovernor, Secretary of State and Auditor to negotiate the 
sale of these bonds, a majority of whom can act. This law provides that the 
Treasurer shall prepare bonds to the amount of one hundred thousand 
dollars, with coupons attached, bearing interest at the rate of 7 per cent, per 
annum, and to be made payable in fifteen years, the interest to be paid semi- 
ajinually. Another act was passed by said Legislature, which was approved 
June 7, 1861, providing for the issuance of twenty thousand dollars of the 
bonds of the State, bearing 10 per cent, interest, and made payable in two 
years. 

These are the only acts that your committee have been able to find, bear- 
ing upon the matter of the sale of Kansas State bonds. 

With regard to bonds issued by the State during the year 1861, under the 
acts referred to. your committee would state that the total issue of bonds 
of every description amounted to $189,400. Of these, $40,000 were 10 per 
cent, bonds, issued under the act of May, '61. and known as war bonds; 
$31,000 of these 10 per cent, bonds have been sold by the Treasurer to R. S. 
Stevens for forty cents on the dollar; the balance are in the Treasurer's 



30 

hands. It appears on evidence before us that a large portion of these bonds 
($26,000) was sold by Mr. Stevens to the Interior Department at Washing- 
ton for 92 cents on the dollar. Of the 7 per cent, bonds, $62,200 were used 
in taking up State scrip, and $87,200 were delivered to R. S. Stevens, for 
which 60 cents on the dollar was to be accounted for by him to the State. 
It appears from evidence before us that these bonds were sold to the Interior 
Department at Washington for 85 cents on the dollar. The evidence before 
your committee regarding the sale of bonds is quite lengthy, and will be 
placed before your body in printed form. 

The conclusions arrived at by your committee are such as to warrant 
them in the belief that this House will take decisive measures ; and deeming a 
fair and full examination of all the evidence proper in the premises, would 
commend it to the attention of the House. 

Of the $40,000 issued under the act of May 7th, your committee are 
clearly of the opinion that $20,000 are illegal, and the House should take 
some action regarding them. 

Your committee also are clearly of the opinion that the Treasurer had no 
authority to sell any of the 10 per cent, bonds at less than par, and is liable 
to the State for the face of all 10 per cent, bonds sold, and of which $12,400 
have been paid into the treasury, leaving a deficiency on bonds sold, to be 
accounted for, of $18,600. 

Of the 7 per cent, bonds sold, your committee would call attention to the 
fact that they are sold by Mr. Stevens as State agent, he deriving his author- 
ity from the State officers authorized by law to sell these bonds. It appears 
on evidence, that he was authorized by them to have all he could realize over 
sixty cents on the dollar. Your committee are of the opinion that the State 
officers are not authorized by law to make any such agreement, and believe 
Mr. Stevens liable to the State for all bonds sold by him. for the full amount 
for loMch he negotiated the bonds, viz., 85 cents on the dollar. An unlawful 
act cannot be rendered lawful by any sanction given it by State officers, in 
4;he opinion of your committee. 

We would further state, that from the evidence before us, it apepars that 
the $87,200 of 7 per cent, bonds were not negotiated with the Interior De- 
partment UNTIL AFTER THE SEMI-ANNUAL INTEREST HAD MATURED, the bonds 

having been issued on July 1st. 1861, and negotiated on or about January 
1st, 1862. This interest, amounting to $30.52. it appears upon evidence, has 
been paid to R. S. Stevens, and thus the State has realized on bonds sold, 
but 56% cents on the dollar. Your committee are of the opinion that this 
interest properly belongs to the State. 

We would further state, that of the $87,200 of bonds placed in the hands 
of R. S. Stevens, it appears upon evidence that he has accounted to the 
State for $56,200 at 60 cents on the dollar, by the payment into the treasurv 
of $33,720, the balance of the bonds ($31,000) being negotiated but not paid 
for by the Interior Department at Washington. Your committee would 
recommend that an act be at once created appointing an agent to go to 
Washington to take charge of this property, with full power to transact all 
further business necessary in the matter on behalf of the State. 



31 

Your committee call special attention to the extracts from letters, and 
the receipts, copies of contract, and appointment, accompanying the evidence. 
In reference to the State Treasurer, the committee ask time to take 
further testimony, which, in their opinion, is necessary to a proper disposal 
of the case. From the evidence which your committee submit with this 
report, they are of the opinion that there has been a collusion of Charles 
Robinson. George S. Hillyer, and John W. Eobinson, with R. S. Stevens, to 
defraud the State of Kansas of a large sum of money. 

Your committee therefore unanimously report the following resolution, 
and recommend its adoption, as a measure demanded by public justice, and 
a proper regard for the rights of the people of Kansas: 

"Resolved, That Charles Robinson. Governor. John W. Robinson, Secre- 
tary of State, and George S. Hillyer. Auditor of the State of Kansas, be and 
they are hereby impeached of high misdemeanors in office." 

Martin Anderson, Chairman. 
H. L. Jones. 
B. W. Hartley. 
Thomas Carney. 
Sidney Clarke. 

The reader will take notice that $31,0€0 of the 10 per cent, bonds were 
sold by the Treasurer to Mr. Stevens for 40 cents on the dollar, and that he 
had no authority to sell them at less than par. We notice that he sold 
$11,000 more than the Legislature voted. To fully appreciate the true in- 
wardness of this transaction, it will be necessary to state that a Mr, Tholen, 
of Leavenworth, an honest, straightforward man, who could not be used by 
Gov. Robinson or any other man, had been elected State Treasurer, but he 
could not make his official bond good enough or strong enough to suit Gov, 
Robinson, whose duty it was to approve it, notwithstanding he had upon it 
some of the best and wealthiest men in Leavenworth. In disgust he resigned 
his office and w^ent into the army, and to fill his place Gov. Robinson ap- 
pointed H. R. Button, a more supple tool, and one who could be used. 

Gen. Collamore and W. F. M. Arny testified that they told Gov. Robin- 
son that they could and w^ould negotiate the war bonds at par. It is evident 
from the evidence of both these men that the Governor did not have any 
notion of giving them an opportunity, 

evidence. 

Geo. S. Hillyer testified that R. S. Stevens was appointed State agent to 
sell Kansas State bonds by the Governor, Secretary of State, and himself. 
. . . The agreement was that he should take the bonds, and, when sold, 
account to the State for 60 cents on the dollar. The bonds were delivered 
to him as he sold them — he gave no security for them. 

Q. Did you know when you made the agreement with Mr, S. what he 
was going to do with the bonds? 

A. I supposed he was going to negotiate them with the Interior Depart- 



32 

ment. There was no agreement that if they should be sold for more than 
60 cents the State should receive the amount over 60 cents. . . . The 
Governor gave to the Secretary verbal authority to sign his name to any 
paper that might be necessary in effecting the negotiations. . . . The 
cost to the State, besides the per cent, to Stevens, was about three hundred 
and fifty dollars — expenses of Secretary and myself to and from Washington. 

Q. Do you know whether Mr. Stevens had any partner in the sale? 

A. I do not. He intimated to me that he had to interest other par- 
ties, but he did not know who. ... It was upon consultation of my- 
self, Secretary and Governor, before receiving his appointment, Mr. S. pro- 
posed to buy the bonds. He proposed to buy fifty thousand dollars' worth 
at forty cents. 

D. H. Weir, clerk in the Secretary of State's office, testified: 

Mr. Pomeroy wrote the letter giving the information that the bonds could 
be sold, so the Secretary informed me. I understood from the Secretary 
that the bonds would not be sold for less than seventy cents on the dollar, 
and perhaps a larger price would be realized. From a memorandum in the 
Secretary's desk on which was computed the amount of bonds at eighty-three 
cents on the dollar. . . . The Auditor was so confident that the bonds 
could be sold that he advised me not to bond my scrip, as there would be 
money to redeem it. 

The Secretary of State wrote from Washington to Mr. Weir: "Keep 
entirely mum about the bonds. Do not say a word to any person alive — not 
even to your wife — for we ivant it as secret as it can he, till it is fixed. 
Yours very truly, J. W. Robinson." 

The above is the way the bank burglars and Jesse Jameses want it. 

The Way Bob Stevens Negotiated the Bonds. 

A few days later he again wrote: 

" I had an interview with Mr. Lincoln night before last, in his 
private parlor, and he seemed desirous to do all he could, and promised to 
order the negotiations made, if it was not seriously opposed by any of his 
cabinet or the people of our State. . . . We may possibly put in the lot 
at 60 cents, but it will never hurt the State a dime or will even be heard of, 
but I shall thank God. . . . Keep still.— J. W. R." 

Treasurer Dutton swore that he 

" Sold the $31,000 of war bonds to Mr. Stevens for 40 cents on the dollar 
and took his receipt. ... I also gave him $27,000 7 per cent, bonds 
and took his receipt for them, to be returned or sold at 70 cents on the 
dollar. The bonds were not returned to me. He came back, and I was in- 
formed by the Auditor and Secretary of State that they had made an ar- 
rangement for the sale of the bonds, and I took an additional receipt for 
$53,400, FIVE thousand dollars being retained by the Auditor to re- 
deem SCRIP." 

Robert Morrow's warrants issued in payment for supplies furnished to 



33 

the Quartermaster-General of Kansas were paid in money to Mr, Stevens. 
Here is another dish of sweetmeats. The Treasurer gives Stevens, who was 
Gov. Kobinson's partner, $113,400 in Kansas bonds, to be paid for when the 
Secretary of State had sold them, and for which no security was given, and 
in which Stevens had not a dollar invested. Five thousand dollars was gen- 
erously saved to redeem scrip at par, presented by the common people, but 
Robert Morrow, another partner of Gov. Robinson and R. S. Stevens, got par 
for his warrants given for supplies, at a price to be paid in scrip worth, sup- 
posed to be, 30 to 40 cents on the dollar, but received in payment in money 
at 100 cents. When one has a good thing there is nothing like keeping it 
in the family. It is not to be wondered at that Gov. Robinson is well fixed. 
Mr. Morrow, being sworn, says: 

" I reside in Lawrence. Am interested in the Lawrence Bank. I am at 
this time nominally president of the bank, but I disposed of my interest 
sometime in the fall to R. S. Stevens. The directors of the Lawrence Bank 
are James Blood, T. B. Eldridge, Mr. Stevens and Gov. Robinson and my- 
self. The directors are principally the stockholders. . . . Mr. Dutton 
has an account at the Lawrence Bank. He gives drafts on our bank which 
we pay in such funds as he draws for." 

Here is a close corporation; reduced to actual fact it is about as follows: 
Lawrence Bank, Governor Charles Robinson and Bob Stevens, o\vners and 
proprietors; Robert Morrow, nominal president and director; James Blood 
and T. B. Eldridge, nominal directors, to make out the necessary names 
required by law to do a banking business, and to furnish supplies to the 
Kansas State troops at prices based on scrip at 40 to 60 cents on the dollar, 
which will be paid by this-bank at 100 cents on the dollar. Said supplies 
when bought to be paid for with money belonging to the State. We will 
negotiate the sale of State bonds to be nominally sold to Mr. Stevens at 40 
to 57^ cents on the dollar, but really to be sold to the Department at Wash- 
ington by Secretary of State Robinson and Auditor Hillyer at 85 and 95 
cents on the dollar and turned over to said Stevens, who will pay orders of 
the State on this bank in Red Dog bank bills which cost considerable to 
print them, — can't pay in other funds, — don't ask for it ; if you do you 
will not get it. Gen. Collamore tried that business and failed, and lost 
his oflBce besides. 

Going through Robinson's record is a big job, and life is short. If 
written in detail the lives of the present generation would not be long 
enough for them to read it. We must hurry on. 



34 

R. S. Stevens, being sworn, says: 

" My place of business is Lawrence, Douglas county, Kansas. My busi- 
ness is of a general character. ... I was authorized to act just as I did 
act in the disposition of those bonds, by the Auditor and Secretary of 
State in their employment of me as their agent. I bought of the Treasurer 
of State about thirty thousand dollars of ten per cent, bonds, I think some- 
time in July, 1861. I received for those I sold to the Interior Department 
95 cents on the dollar. I think I sold about twenty-six thousand dollars. 
I paid to the Treasurer a portion of it in cash ; the balance was afterwards 
placed to his credit in the Lawrence Bank. [He said he received the 
semi-annual interest on the Kansas State bonds, which was due on January 
1st, 1862.] These bonds were negotiated with the Department at Washing- 
ton the latter part of December. [Thus receiving interest on bonds belong- 
ing to the State, and for which Stevens had not paid a dollar. — Editor.] 

Question: Did Charles Robinson share with you any of the profits aris- 
ing from the sale of "Kansas State bonds ? 

In reference to other parties, I prefer they should answer for them- 
selves. 

There is the meat in the nut. If Robinson was not in collusion with 
Stevens, would not Stevens answer promptly NO? 
Copy from the report: 

Copies of the following document were furnished to the committee by 
R. S. Stevens. Whether they are copies of original, and if so, ichether such 
copies are correct, the committee have not been able to ascrtain: 

COPY. 

" This certifies that we have employed and constituted R. S. Stevens an 
agent on the part of the State of Kansas to negotiate and sell all of the 
seven per cent, bonds of said State issued in accordance with an act of the 
Legislature of Kansas approved May 1, 1861, and an act supplementary 
thereto approved June 3d, 1861, authorizing the sale and issue of one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand dollars of the bonds of said State; and we hereby 
agree to give him for his services as such agent all and whatever amount 
of money he may receive for said bonds over and above sixty cents on every 
dollar. 

" Witness our hands, this 3d day of December, A. D. 1861. 

John W. Robinson, Secretary of State. 

Geo. S. Hillyer^ Auditor State," 
This paper is, according to my belief, a true copy of the original. 

R. S. Stevens." 

[According to his belief ! Why did he not produce the original? Viz., be- 
cause it looks very much as if it had Charles Robinson's name on it, and it 
would have been proof so damaging that he would have been impeached by 
the State Senate as he was by the House.] 

copy. 

"Executive Department, Office State Auditor, Topeka, Kansas, Oct. 25, 
1861. — The undersigned, executive officers of this State, authorized by law 



35 

to dispose of and sell the seven per cent, bonds, the issuance of which was 
authorized by an act of the Legislature of this State, approved May 1st, 
1861, entitled 'An act to authorize the negotiation of one hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars of the bonds of the State of Kansas, to defray the 
current expenses of the State,' and an act supplementary thereto, approved 
June 3d, 1861, do hereby constitute and appoint Robert S. Stevens, Esq., an 
agent to dispose of said bonds, giving him, the said Stevens, full power 
and authority to negotiate, dispose of and sell the entire sum of said one 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars of said bonds for the benefit of the State 
of Kansas; hereby ratifying and confirming all and whatever said Stevens 
may do in the premises. Witness our hand and seal, this 26th day of Oc- 
tober, A. D. 1861. C. Robinson, Governor. 

John W. Robinson, Secretary State. 

Geo. S. Hillyer, Auditor State." 
" Note. — [This paper was executed in Washington in December, 1861, and 
dated back, the Governor's name being signed thereto by the Auditor or 
Secretary.] The above, excepting the note in brackets, I believe to be a true 
eopy of the original, on file in the Interior Department at Washington. 

R. S. Stevens." 

We will now see what the old Trojan himself has to say. 

Gov. Robinson, in his evidence, said that he did not sign the contract 
made with Stevens and Secretary Robinson and Auditor Hillyer. Stevens 
asked him to sign such paper, but refused. Acknowledged that he gave 
Secretary Robinson authority to use his name, but only in transactions in- 
side the law. Personally he would approve of anything they did, but would 
not officially. He knew Gen. Pomeroy had written to Secretary Robinson, 
telling him the bonds could be negotiated in Washington, but he did not 
know it officially. 

The question of right did not appear to enter into the Governor's calcu- 
lations. 

Let us examine a little into the Governor's evidence, and see what is left 
after stripping it of its verbiage : " I understood from Hillyer and Robin- 
son, that they authorized Stevens to sell the bonds and have all he could get 
over sixty cents on the dollar. I did not approve officially of the same." 
He might just as well have added: "Personally I will approve anything 
you do; but officially I must keep inside the law." There was a conversa- 
tion before they went away of the necessity of the sale of bonds to meet the 
interest due on the bonds coming due on the first of January, 1862. What 
bonds? Viz., the bonds unsold and still in the possession of the State offi- 
cers and Bob Stevens. Was the interest paid? It was. To whom? Bob 
Stevens. Why was it paid to Bob Stevens? To reward his honesty and 
generosity in paying into Robinson & Stevens's bank the enormous sum of 



36 

$12,400 from the sale of $31,000 of war bonds, retaining for his commission 
on that one transaction the trifling sum of $18,600; and as a further reward 
for his honesty in depositing in the Lawrence Bank sixty cents on the dollar 
for the sale of State bonds, when he might as well have kept it all, as the 
State had no security. Another instance of honesty rewarded. 

Eobinson says he knew the bonds could be sold in Washington. Pomeroy 
had so written. He knew he had no legal right to sell the bonds for less 
than seventy cents on the dollar, and for that reason refused to sign a paper 
authorizing their sale for a less price, presented by Mr. Stevens. Admit- 
ting this last item to be true, let us imagine the Grovernor's answer to 
Stevens: "Bob, that won't do; I can't sign such a paper. It would send 
me to the penitentiary. I want to make all I can out of it, but I don't 
want to get into the pen. You will have no trouble in manipulating Secre- 
tary Robinson and Hillyer when you get to Washington. I have set them 
up, and given them verbal permission to attach my name to any paper that 
is necessary to negotiate the bonds. This will answer for our purpose very 
well, and protect me at the same time. Should the matter be investigated, I 
could swear Bobinson and Hillyer did not have my permission to use my 
name to any transaction that was not inside the law." 

Would not an honest man have written or gone to Washington himself 
in person, and sold the bonds to the department for all he could get, and 
returned every dollar of it to the State treasury? That was the way Carney 
and Crawford [later Governors of Kansas] did, and was the way any honest 
man would do. 

Tlie Governor admits that he signed $40,000 of war bonds, when there 
were only $20,000 authorized. If he knew what he was doing, he was a 
knave; if he did not, he was incompetent to hold any position of public trust. 

Wm. P. Dole, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, testified that the State 
oflSlcers, with the aid of the State delegation, could have negotiated the bonds. 

Gen. Lane testified that he saw Hillyer and Robinson [Secretary of State] 
in Washington frequently before the bonds were negotiated, and asked them 
as frequently if Bob Stevens or Gov. Robinson had anything to do, directly 
or indirectly, with the sale of the bonds. They asseverated in the most 
emphatic manner that they had not. Otherwise he would not have permit- 
ted the negotiation to be made, as the money could not be kept in the State 
treasury, as these harpies would steal it. On one occasion they came to him 
with Bob Stevens behind them, and he said to them that unless they could 
come to him without the company of a thief like Bob Stevens, he would have 
nothing to do with them. He afterwards signed the paper recommending 



37 

the President to make the negotiation, with the distinct and emphatic under- 
standing that the entire proceeds of the sale were to go into the Kansas State 
treasury, and be carried to the State by Auditor Hillyer and Secretary Robin- 
son, and that Bob Ste\:ens or Gov, Robinson should not handle or touch a 
dollar of it. " Had I known that Governor Robinson or Bob Stevens had 
anything to do with the transaction, I would have opposed it with all the 
energy of my nature." 

Governor Robinson and his partners use the State's money to run their 
tank, and when State orders on the hank are presented, the holder of the 
order is told the hank has no money; gives drafts on lifew York, payable 
thirty days after date, and when presented in "New Y^k, loere protested. 
Notwithstanding this, the whisky vendors of LoAjorence present Charles 
Robinson to the people of Douglas county as an honest man, and ask 
honest people to vote for him. 

R. S. Stevens was a State Senator and a business partner of Governor 
Robinson in a bank at Lawrence, and known among the people as the " Red 
Dog" bank, and, like the Lawrence Savings Bank, was a bank without cap- 
ital (other than the State's money, which was deposited in it by Governor 
Robinson's appointee, H. R. Dutton, State Treasurer ) , and the State's money 
was used by the bank as other deposits were. Gov. Robinson's private sec- 
retary was the cashier of the bank; R. S. Stevens (State Senator), and 
Charles Robinson ( Governor ) , proprietors. The 40 per cent, received for the 
war bonds and the 65 per cent, received for the State bonds were deposited 
in this Red Dog bank by Treasurer Dutton, as is shown in his evidence, and 

loaned out on interest by the bank, as shown by the evidence of Gen. Colla- 
more. 

Gen. Collamore, State Quartermaster-General, who presented his scrip to 

the bank for payment — to defray the expenses in organizing the troops — 

was told that the bank was out of money, but they would give him a draft 

on New York, payable thirty days after date. He inquired if the money was 

there; the cashier admitted it was not, but said it would be. Collamore 

finally accepted a draft on the Ocean Bank of New York, at thirty days, but 

questioning the honesty of the bank proprietors, refused to give up his 

bonds and warrants, till he got the money, and deposited them witTi Wesley 

Duncan, to be delivered when Mr. Duncan should get the money. These 

drafts, amounting to $7138.68, at the end of thirty days were protested and 

dishonored. This transaction with Collamore brought Gen. Lane's attention 

to the fact that Robinson, Stevens & Co.'s bank was loaning and speculating 

with the State's money, and he appeared upon the scene and fairly made 



38 

Kome howl ; and such a cry of indignation went up from the people — it 
seemed as if hanging-time had about come. The State was to be reimbursed 
by the United States for expenses incurred in organizing troops. 

The duty of covering that money into the Kansas treasury fell to Gren- 
eral Collamore, as the Quartermaster-General of the State. 

The above bank transaction proved to Robinson that he could not use 
the General in his schemes to make money at the State's expense, and he 
was determined to get him out of his way that he might appoint his tool, 
Dutton, in his place, and sent the following letter: 

State of Kansas, Executive Office, 
ToPEKA, March 15, ,1862. 
Gen. George W. Collamore — Sir : I have the honor to inform you that 
I have appointed Hon. H. R. Dutton agent to receive the money due the 
State of Kansas for expenses incurred in organizing and subsisting volun- 
teers for the United States service. Your appointment is accordingly re- 
voked, and you will deliver to Mr. Dutton all vouchers and other necessary 
papers in your possession, to enable him to make a proper settlement with 
the treasury department. Very respectfully, 

C. Robinson, Governor of Kansas. 

Gen. Collamore was not the man to surrender, and he denied Governor 
Robinson's power to get the treasures of the State out of his hands. 
We quote the following from his response: 

Lawrence, March 18, 1862. 
To His Excellency, Charles Robinson, Governor of 'Kansas : . . . Recent 
developments have disclosed that honest citizens — not only men, but widows 
and orphans — have been defrauded by officers in high places, and it grieves 
me to say that this young and growing State is greatly injured in the eyes 
of the civilized world; therefore it devolves upon me as an humble citizen of 
Kansas and holding the office that I now do, to move with great caution. 
. . . My whole aim is that the people whose public servants we are shall 
not suffer, and as far as in my power lies, either in my official capacity or 
individual capacity, their interests shall be promoted and protected. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

Geo. W. Collamore, Quartermaster-General of Kansas. 

The honest old Diogenes lit his lantern and started out to look for an 
honest man, and found one as follows: 

Topeka, March 22, 1862. 
Geo. W. Collamore, Quartermaster-General, K. M.: . . . As you are 
unable to comprehend my previous order, I will direct that you deliver to 
Col. J. S. Emery, my Aide and Assistant Adjutant-General, all papers, 
vouchers and property of whatever kind belonging to the office of Quarter- 
master-General. ... C. Robinson, 

Governor, and Commander-in-Chief K. M. 



39 

General Collamore was so blind to the honest merits of his new appointee 
that he still refused to deliver up his papers, and replied as follows : 

Lawrence, Kas., April 5, 1862. 
. . . Finally, I will add that in the latter part of May last past, some 
of the companies of May last past, some of the companies of the Kansas 
First being nearly full, lacking only a few members to reach the minimum 
number required before mustering in, you, then being Governor of Kansas, 
requested of me, Quartermaster-General of Kansas, to go down to Leaven- 
worth and get some of those poor miserable devils to enlist and pay them 
five dollars apiece, with the understanding for them to desert the next day. 
Tliis base proposition was made by you to me on 'the afternoon of the 30th 
day of May, 1861. The man so depraved, so lost to honor and shame, will 
not scruple to assert anything or do any act, be it never so corrupt and 
wicked, when it is to his selfish interest so to do. 

Geo. W. Collamore. 

The penalty for desertion in war-time is death. Here we have the spec- 
tacle of the Governor of Kansas setting a trap to put young men in danger 
of being shot, for the paltry sum of five dollars. Could baseness go farther? 
Perhaps he looked upon that class of men as he said in his lecture at Par- 
sons — the sooner they died the better, and was a beneficial way of killing 
them off. Gen. Lane and Sidney Clarke, in company of the leading Free- 
State men who were in Washington at that time, placed on file in the 
Treasury Department the following protest: 

Washington, April 6, 1862. 
We, the undersigned citizens of Kansas, protest against the payment of 
the State of Kansas for expenses in organizing volunteer troops for the 
service of the LTnited States to the present State Treasurer of Kansas, or to 
any of the officers of the present State Government, or agents of the same, 
for reasons deducible from the following statement of facts. . . . 

In this document they charge Governor Robinson with dishonesty and 
colluding with others in manipulating and using the State money for their 
own personal advantage, and to the disadvantage of the State of Kansas. 

Does not the above show a nice condition of things? In the face of such 
a past official record, one would think that Governor Robinson w^ould be 
ashamed to ask the people of Douglas county, or the State, to again elect 
him to official position. But modesty is no part of the Governor's make-up. 
One of our State Treasurers a few years ago was forced to resign his office 
to escape impeachment for using the State money in his own banking busi- 
ness, when it was never charged that the State had or would lose a dollar, 
or that as Treasurer he had ever failed to pay on demand any draft made on 
him as State Treasurer for payment. 



40 

What would the people of Kansas think and say of Gov. Glick, or any 
other Governor, if his official action had been such that any member of the 
State Government would dare to publish such letters as these Collamore 
letters were — plainly and openly charging him with official corruption, and 
telling him that he as Governor of the State had robbed the widows and 
OEPHANS, AS WELL AS THE STATE? They would hiss him out of the State 
or send him to the penitentiary; and yet our Democratic friends want us to 
elect this man to the State Senate. 

Gen. Collamore was one of the best and purest men that ever trod Kansas 
soil. No taint of corruption or job was ever attached to his fair name. 
When his spirit went to God, in the Lawrence massacre, his loss was a 
public calamity. The citizens of Lawrence, recognizing his ability and 
purity, elected him Mayor of the city, in which capacity he was acting at 
the time of his death. 

These shameful and barefaced robberies of the people of the State resulted 
in the Governor, Auditor and Secretary being impeached by the House of 
Representatives by a unanimous vote of 65 members. The Governor escaped 
impeachment by the Senate, composed of 20 voting members. Of these, the 
two Douglas county Senators were his partners in the Red Dog bank. When 
we take into consideration the fact that the Governor had an immense 
amount of patronage in commissions of officers in the army, from lieutenant 
to colonel, we readily see how he escaped conviction by the Senate. Many of 
these same Senators and their friends afterwards received commissions in 
the army. The verdict of the Senate was, in substance, the old Scotch ver- 
dict, NOT PROVEN. The people of the State pronounced the verdict of guilty. 
This trial was concluded on the 17th day of June, 1862. The Republican 
State Convention on the 17th day of September (just three months to a 
day after the impeachment trial), met, and Thomas Carney was nominated 
to Succeed Chas. Robinson, who was relegated to private life in the most 
emphatic manner, not receiving a single vote in the convention for renomi- 
nation. 

It may not be out of place to stop in our narrative here to relate a 
little anecdote: 

At that time there lived an old lady (whose name we have forgotten) at 
the town-site of Washington, one mile west of Big Springs on the Topeka 
road. She kept a log-house hotel. She was not handsome, but made excel- 
lent coffee, biscuits, butter and fried pork. In the amount of business that 
she did she outrivaled the most pretentious hotel in Big Springs. One day 
about this time General Lane on his way down from Topeka in a buggy (we 



41 

had no railroads in those days) stopped at the old lady's house for supper, 
during which she said, " General, I never expected to live long enough to see 
a man mean enough to rob a people that were so poor their chickens couldn't 
crow, but I have." 

This remark tickled Lane very much, as he had not noticed that during 
the winter months of 1860 and 1861 on account of the early troubles and a 
total drouth during the year of 1860 when there were ten months without 
rain (the people were very poor, and corn worth $2 to $4 per bushel), the 
chickens did not have sufficient food and did not crow. 

We here have the disgraceful spectacle of the Governor of Kansas being 
investigated, charged with being in collusion with other men to rob the State. 

Having more cunning than Hillyer and John W. Robinson, they were 
used as the cat's-paw to pull the chestnuts out of the fire. Bonds were 
voted by the State to pay its current expense, and equip and organize the 
Kansas troops to defend our Government against treason and rebellion. 

The Governor was appointed chairman of a committee to place these 
bonds on the market, and negotiate their sale. 

An honest man who was not a fool would have negotiated the bonds him- 
self in person, and not have trusted to others such important responsibili- 
ties. In the following year the Legislature voted bonds, and Gov. Carney 
sold them for 951/4 cents on the dollar and turned over that amount 
TO THE State Treasurer. Governor Robinson turns over 40 cents on 
the dollar. This bond transaction clearly proves that the Governor was 
either guilty of collusion with the thieves or guilty of incapacity and 
stupidity. S. J. Crawford succeeded Gov. Carney, and Carney was appointed 
State agent to sell the State bonds, which he did to the amount of near a 
half -million of dollars, for 91 to 100 cents on the dollar. All of which 
was turned over to the State Treasurer. There were no Bob Stevenses or 
Treasurer Buttons in their bond agency. Comment is unnecessary; these 
transactions tell their own story. 

Treasurer Dutton left the State and settled in Chicago, where he started 
a wholesale whisky-shop. Gov. Robinson commissioned John W. Robinson 
as surgeon in the Second Kansas Regiment. He died at Fort Smith in 
Arkansas, December 11, 1862. Wilder, in his Annals of Kansas, says: "No 
other Kansas politician has died of a broken heart." It was generally be- 
lieved that the Secretary of State and Auditor did not make anything out 
of this infamous bond transaction, but were used by Gov. Robinson, R. S. 
Stevens and Treasurer Dutton. 

About the time of the sale of the war bonds Gov. Robinson rode from 



42 

Topeka to Lawrence in a buggy with a prominent business man who lives 
in Douglas county at this time, to whom the Governor said that he (Rob- 
inson) had sold the war bonds. 

The Goaternor's Farm. 

The farm on which the Governor resides, is comprised of two thousand 
one hundred and sixty acres, received from the Kansas Pacific Railroad 
Company in pajnnent for services rendered that corporation in obtaining 
subsidies from the General Government. A Greenbacker and Anti-Monopolist 
would say for helping the Kansas Pacific Railroad Company to steal the 
public lands; probably that accounts for the Governor's conversion to that 
faith. 

The county records say this tract of valuable land, much of it Kansas 
river bottom and the best land in the State, was bought from the K. P. 
Railroad Company by Martha Robinson for the sum of one dollar. For fear 
that some of our Democratic friends may entertain the idea that they 
would like to buy some of that kind of land at the same price Martha 
Robinson paid, we will say the railroad company have closed out all the 
land they have for sale at that price. This land is described in County 
Record Book 11, page 369, as follows: 

"All of see's 4, 13, 17, and ^2 of s.w. ^ sec. 18, and s.e. % sec. 28, town. 
12, range 20 — in all 2160 acres." 

.Sturgis, Robinson, Kalloch d Go. succeed in swindling Douglas, Franklin 
and Anderson counties out of $650,000. — Try to steal 8,000,000 acres of 
land, icorth -$40,000,000, from the Osage trihe of Indians. 

For several years after the Governor was so unceremoniously kicked out 
of his office of Governor by the people, he spent his time on Martha Robin- 
son's farm, and but little was heard from him during the years 1867 and 
1868. The Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Railroad project began to be 
agitated, and the air was rife with the smell of railroad lands and county 
bonds, which brought the Governor forth from his den, as the spider runs 
out of his hole when it hears a fly buzzing around its web. 

The franchises of this railroad company were turned over to Wm. Sturgis 
& Co., Robinson and Kalloch being a part of the company. With the aid of 
a few barrels of whisky, and by corrupting the leading men of the Osage 
tribe of Indians, they succeeded in making a treaty with them, by which 
they were to sell 8,000,000 acres of the best land in the State to the railroad 
company for 19 cents an acre — to be paid for at some time in the future 
after they had made the money out of the land — and with a big flourish of 



43 

trumpets went to Washington to get the treaty ratified. The Hon. Sidney 
Clarke was our member in Congress at that time, and opposed this gigantic 
steal with energy and ability. By cajoling and threats, Robinson and Kalloch 
tried to induce him to cease his opposition to this infamy — only equalled 
in its bareness by the Robinson war bond transaction — but Mr. Clarke 
refused to be conciliated, and kept up his opposition to the measure till 
Congress adjourned, when all parties came home. 

During the political canvass that followed, Governor Robinson and Mr. 
Kalloch, backed by the Galveston Railroad Company's money, did their level 
best to beat Mr. Clarke's nomination as a candidate to Congress to succeed 
himself. During the canvass, Gov. Robinson in his attack upon Mr. Clarke 
stated from the stump in every school-house in the county, that he had 
offered him twenty thousand dollars in money and ten sections of land, if 
he would cease his opposition to this attempted steal of lands worth $40,000,- 
000 — FORTY MILLIONS OF DOLLARS — but Mr. Clarke would not be con- 
ciliated. 

The actual settlers eventually got the land instead of Sturgis, Robinson, 
Kalloch & Co. In addition to this land transaction, the Governor is more 
than any other man responsible for the $300,000 of Douglas county bonds 
being stolen from this county, to pay for the interest and principal of which 
we are so fearfully taxed at the present time. We have it on the authority 
of the Governor himself that the L. L. & G. Railroad Company made a con- 
tract with I. S. Kalloch, by which they agreed to pay him the sum of twenty- 
five thousand dollars for his personal services in assisting to rob the counties 
of Douglas, Franklin and Anderson of their bonds, as follows: Douglas 
county, $300,000; Franklin county, $250,000; Anderson county, $150,000. 
After the robbery had been accomplished they went back on their agreement, 
and only paid him $12,500. If $12,500, in addition to several sections of 
land, was the pay for Kalloch's services, what w^as Governor Robinson's 
compensation? If two thousand one hundred and sixty acres was the Gov- 
ernor's share of the land the Kansas Pacific Railroad Company got from 
the General Government, how much would have been his share if Sturgis, 
Robinson, Kalloch & Co. had succeeded in their attempted steal of 8,000,000 
Osage Indian lands? 

Life is too short to go into details of Governor Robinson's transactions 
in Kansas, and we will pass rapidly on. There is infamy enough in the Gal- 
veston Railroad business to fill a volume of itself. 



44 

KOBINSON AS ViCE-PeESIDENT OF THE LAWRENCE SAVINGS BANK. 

In October, 1877, the Lawrence Savings Bank closed its doors and ceased 
to exist as a bank. Up to the day on which it closed, the following business 
advertisement appeared in the most conspicuous place in the newspapers pub- 
lished in the city of Lawrence: 

LAWRENCE SAVINGS BANK. 

No. 52 Massachusetts Street, Lawrence, Kansas. 
Enoch Hoag, President. Charles Robinson, Vice-President. 

Deposits amounting to one dollar and over will be received during the 
usual banking hours, and will draw interest at the rate of seven per cent, 
per annum, to be paid semi-annually in the months of April and October in 
each year, and if not drawn will be added and draw interest the same as the 
principal. Interest allowed on time deposits. 

It is well known that stockholders in any bank or corporation are liable 
under the law for its indebtedness to twice the amount of his stock. When 
the bank books came into the assignee's hands they showed that Gov. Rob- 
inson had transferred his stock more than a year previous, to an irresponsible 
person from whom not one dollar could be or ever was collected. The follow- 
ing is copied from the bank books: 

20 SHARES. 

Lawrence, October 26, 1876. 
For value received, I hereby assign and transfer to May L. Robinson all 
my right, title and interest in 20 shares of the capital stock of the Lawrence 
Savings Bank standing in my name on the books of said bank. 

C. Robinson. 
Witness: John K. Rankin. 

L. Bullene, B. W. Woodward and others owned stock in this bank — but 
did not transfer it to irresponsible persons; they walked up to the assignee 
and paid in money to the amount for which they were liable under the law. 
Not so with the worthy Governor; he paid nothing. The widows, orphans, 
bootblacks and sewing-women had their money in that savings bank. 

Was it a straightforward, honest business transaction for Gov. Robinson 
to let his name stand out in big advertising letters for one year after he 
knew the bank was rotten, thus inveigling poor people into depositing their 
little all, with a certainty of never getting it out? But a few days before it 
closed its doors, Mrs. Dr. Sam Huson deposited the five thousand dollars 
she had received from the Missouri Valley Life Insurance Company on her 
husband's death. Mrs. Jennings, a widow, who earned her money by going 
out sewing at fifty cents a day, lost $85 ; the Eldridge House bootblack lost 
$65, earned five cents at a time; and so we might enumerate to the amoimt 



45 

of many thousands of dollars. When the bank made a public showing by- 
advertisement in the newspapers only three months before it closed, that its 
assets were $60,000 more than its liabilities, was that an honest transaction? 
The Governor knew that showing was a lie. The Governor stands in the 
same relation to this Savings Bank fraud that he did to the State bond steal. 
He was a party to the swindle, or he lacks the ability to keep his fair name 
uncontaminated by swindles. If the Governor is a man of such wonderful 
ability and integrity his Democratic friends claim, how comes it that he 
has such a fearful bad public record? We have had seven Governors since 
Gov. Robinson's term expired, not one of whom has a taint of corruption or 
stupidity, such as letting thieves rob the State, attached to his official record. 
Charles Robinson was elected Governor on the first Tuesday in December, 
1859. The State was admitted into the Union January 29th, 1861. It was 
contended by many that his term of office expired at the end of two years 
from the first day of January succeeding his election. The Governor con- 
tended that his term of office commenced with the admission of the State 
into the Union, and would not expire till January, 1863. He was hardly 
warm in his seat before he was so unpopular that the people seized upon 
any pretext to get him out of office; and in the latter part of October, 1861, 
petitions from all parts of the State were sent in to the Republican State 
Central Committee asking them to make a State ticket to be voted for at 
the coming election. The following is a copy of the petition: 

We, the undersigned citizens, suffering in common with others from the 
impotency or malice of the present Executive, and earnestly desiring a State 
Government that will in a patriotic and energetic manner defend our people 
from invasion — knowing that by the plain and emphatic provisions of the 
State constitution the term of our State officers expires on the first day of 
January and that the Legislative enactment continuing the State officers 
beyond that time is null and void, and that there is not sufficient time before 
the election to hold a nominating convention, do respectfully pray your 
honorable body to nominate a full State ticket of Union men, without ref- 
erence to their political antecedents, men who will conduct the State Govern- 
ment with reference to the good of the whole country, and not upon merely 
personal grounds. 

In accordance with this request, T. Dwight Thacher, as secretary of the 
committee, called it together. They made a ticket and platform and nomi- 
nated most of the then present State officers, but Gov. Robinson was left 
off, and when election day came the people decided by their votes that they 
had no further use for him. The legality of this election was contested by 
Gov. Robinson, the validity of which was decided by the State Supreme Court 
in Robinson's favor, and he held over another year. 



46 

A few days ago the Lawrence Journal called his attention to his Ottawa 
speech, when he said that one church did more harm than five or six saloons, 
to which the Governor replied, admitting the charge, and explaining that he 
meant the churches of twenty years ago and not the churches of to-day. 
His explanation reminds us of an anecdote of the late Baron Rothschild. 
On a certain occasion he went into the country to spend the Sabbath with a 
friend. The friend gave the Baron an invitation to attend church, which he 
accepted. During the services the minister took occasion to score the Jews. 
In the evening the friend again invited the Baron to attend divine services. 
The Baron excused himself, giving as a reason that in the morning service 
the preacher had abused and insulted his people. The friend replied : " My 
dear Baron, he did not mean gentleman Jews — he meant Jews that sell old 
clothes." 

COMMENT BY JOHN SPEEB. 

Commenting on this same matter, Hon. John Speer, in his 
MS. account, now in the library of the Historical Society, goes 
over each item. We quote from him. Some of his language is 
omitted, as the points are made plain in the newspaper article 
quoted. 

The whole history of that transaction will be found in detail in a volume 
entitled, " Impeachment Trials." The work will be as lasting as any portion 
of the printed archives of the State. . . . The resolution to impeach 
passed the House: yeas, 65; nays, 0. 

The proof before the Senate, on the trial, showed that Governor Charles 
Robinson had given written authority to the Auditor and Secretary to use 
his name in the sale of $150,000 of State bonds. The authority was before 
the State Senate, undenied by Governor Robinson; but he testified himself, 
in his trial before the Senate, that he did not authorize them to sell con- 
trary to law. The law required that the bonds should not be sold for less 
than 70 cents on the dollar. One Robert S. Stevens, of Ithaca, New York, 
who built under a Government contract a large number of Indian houses on 
the Neosho river and elsewhere in Kansas, was a very shrewd man, and con- 
sidered by many as unscrupulous as shrewd; and he had acquired much 
knowledge about Indian investments of funds by the Interior Department. 
Thus informed, he entered into a contract to sell these bonds to that depart- 
ment for 90 cents on the dollar, conditional that the Governor, Auditor and 



47 

Secretary should pay him as their agent all over 60 cents on the dollar, and 
that contract was fulfilled in the names of all of them. 

The case of Robinson was decided upon a principle of law established 
by as pure a jurist as ever wore the ermine, " the bosom friend of George 
Washington," Chief Justice Marshall, in the treason trial of Aaron Burr; 
but not without the bitterest antagonism of President Jefferson, Says one 
of the ablest historians of the time : " If Burr had been proven to have been 
at Blannerhassett's Island when the boats started down the Ohio, the overt 
act would have been made out, and in all probability the Government would 
have attained a conviction." 

The case of Robinson was similar. He was not " in the boats," If he 
had been personally at Washington, operating with his co-officers, who 
could doubt what would have been the result? There are other similar 
features in these two cases. Burr had been twice indicted in Kentucky and 
was honorably acquitted, , . , That Stevens got the money was never 
denied ; and Gen. Lane ^openly branded him as a thief, and declared that he 
had been " expelled from the Interior Department for fear he would steal the 
stone steps of the Patent Office." Not so with Robinson, who stuck to 
Stevens as the succor of his hope for all the reputation he had left. Burr 
and Robinson, both indicted, got off on the same technical plea, and with 
intelligent men there is no more doubt about one than the other. 

There was another bond transaction under Gov. Robinson's administra- 
tion. William Tholen, of Leavenworth, was elected State Treasurer, running 
ahead of Robinson, and beating every candidate of the eleven State officers 
but one. He made a good bond; but Governor Robinson, who in his official 
capacity had the approving of the State Treasurer's bond, declared the bond 
insufficient, and appointed to the vacancy he had himself made, a tool by 
the name of H. R. Button. The State passed a law for issuing $20,000 
bonds, known as war bonds, for the emergencies of the Rebellion, making 
no limit for the amount at which they might be sold. They ran two years, 
at 10 per cent, per annum. Hon. Thaddeus Hyatt, and Gov. Andrew of 
Massachusetts, being friends of Treasurer Button and R. S. Stevens, of 
Kansas, offered to take them at par. These men nevertheless sold these 
bonds for forty cents on the dollar. Although the law only authorized the 
issue of $20,000, these men had nearly $40,000 of bonds signed, as is shown 
by Button's testimony (Impeachment Cases, page 213), and had sold over 
$31,000 for forty cents on the dollar; and Senator Lane prevented the sale 
of more, at the same rates, Stevens was the particular friend and accom- 
plice of Robinson. Unlike Clay with Burr, he never forsook him, but thej 



48 

kept doing business at the same old stand, whether bonds were to be sold or 
an election run, although Stevens was a rock-ribbed Buchanan Democrat, 
receiving Indian contracts, apparently useless to the Indians and only bene- 
ficial to Stevens and his " Indian ring." These cabins with Indians sleep- 
ing outside of them in contempt were objects of curiosity to travelers by 
rail up and down the Neosho river for twenty years, and Stevens was known 
as the Kansas manipulator of the Pro-Slavery administration of Buchanan 
as long as it existed, and every day of its existence, Buchanan proclaiming 
that " slavery existed in Kansas as much as it did in Georgia." 

The Union Pacific Railway secured the rights of the Leavenworth, Pawnee 
& Western Railway to 260,000 acres of the land on the Delaware Indian Res- 
ervation, conditioned to constructing a railway, and it was necessary to 
have the Governor's approval of its construction, and that company deeded 
to Governor Robinson a section and a half of that land in admiration for 
his honesty and statesmanship, for one dollar, as the records of Douglas 
county show. How that company admired his statesmanship! It would 
have been just as easy to insert a just value, say $15,000, but the officers 
could not have shown to the Eastern capitalists what they did with the 
money. 

Several persons have written " histories " and sketches, in which, by in- 
nuendo rather than direct charges, they have attempted to throw obloquy 
upon the administration of Abraham Lincoln in regard to his conduct toward 
the administration of Kansas under Gov. Robinson. They represent Lincoln's 
conduct as " mysterious " errors, unaccountable in such a man. There was 
a mystery about it. 

At the very beginning of Mr. Lincoln's administration, Gov. Robinson 
set his eye upon the Indian Bureau, and went io Washington to secure the 
appointment of Commissioner of Indian Affairs. So certain did he seem of 
getting it, that his organ (for he always had a newspaper in his control) 
tauntingly notified his opponents that he (Robinson) would have the "dis- 
pensation of the little guardianships of the red man " in his grasp. That 
went forth as a bribe in one hand and a rod in the other. There was no 
other position in the gift of the President of such power in the hands of 
a corrupt politician. It was incalculable. Superintendents, clerks, agents, 
mechanics, farmers, teachers, missionaries, were all perquisites of corrup- 
tion in a bad man's grasp. Then supplies! Who can limit them? A stump 
speaker once said of an Indian trader who got rich : " It requires no finan- 
cial talent to buy Indian beads at 75 cents a bushel and sell them for a 
dollar a string." Lincoln had the experience of the scandals of the plains 



49 

under Buchanan's administration. Mails were burned to save hauling. It 
would be an insult to his intelligence to suppose that all these charges of 
'bond transactions by Robinson were not familiar to him. Robinson's am- 
bition was checked right then; and he returned from Washington the bitter 
enemy of Lincoln, and remained so till Lincoln's death. He never voted 
for him. In 1864 every effort he could put forth was exerted to send an 
anti-Lincoln delegate. Thos, J. Sternbergh was the Lincoln candidate in 
Lawrence, and was elected in defiance of every possible effort against him. 
In the calamity which befell Kansas at the hands of Gen. Price, Robinson 
remained at Lawrence, using all his power to prevent the advance of the 
army, representing that it was a trick of Lane to get the people into trouble. 
This is his language in his own organ, the Lawrence Journal: "We pity the 
Grim Chieftain, now at Hickman's Mills searching for an opportunity to 
get up a bogus reputation, if Price has actually fled. He came from the 
East very much alarmed, actually scared. He went to the Fort; Sykes was 
removed. Called upon the Government for militia; martial law was de- 
clared, militia called out — he appointed aide-de-camp. Our militia have 
been to Lexington, Mo., and have scoured the country from the Kansas 
"border to that locality. No force of the enemy can be found. He is not 
anywhere in that region. All the stories we have heard (from Curtis and 
Lane) have turned out to be great exaggerations. W^herever our militia go, 
whether at Independence or Lexington, they find that a big scare appears 
to have existed on a very slight foundation." 

This appeared in the Lawrence Journal October 20th, 1864. On that 
very day Lane was at Lexington in the hottest of the fight (see the record 
from Wilder's Annals), while Robinson was doing his best to discourage 
and prevent advancement: 

" October 20th, 1864: Engagement at Lexington, Mo., and retreat to the 
Little Blue. 

"October 21: Battle along the Little Blue; Union victory. Price and 
his whole army engaged. 

"October 22: Battle of the Big Blue; Union victory. . . . Citizens 
of Kansas (mostly militia) now under arms estimated to number 20,000. 

" October 23 : Battle of Westport. Defeat and retreat of Price. Colonel 
Moonlight moves down the Kansas border in advance." 

Then followed the retreat of Price, the battle of Mine Creek; the route 
of Price and the capture of the Rebel Generals Marmaduke, Cabell, Slem- 
mons, and Graham. 

By the opposition of Robinson and his cohorts, parts of two reo-iments 



50 

deserted and one Colonel was put in a log pen, with logs enough over it to 
hold an elephant, while his command was hurried on to the front. 

The poltroons who have assaulted the Kansas troops would not dare to 
go up to the grave of Lane at Oak Hill, and open up the grass and whisper 
his name. 

It is well known here, however, that the estimate of the Emigrant Aid 
Company for this house seems to have been $500, as their books now in the 
archives of the Kansas Historical Society show that that was the amount 
paid to Charles Robinson by that company to reimburse him for the loss of 
that house. 

We refer especially to this house, because it is the easiest of estimate 
of all claims. It was a frame house, not to exceed in dimensions more than 
20 X 30 feet, a story and a half high, constructed in the cheap style generally 
known as a balloon frame, the upright scantling not to exceed 16 feet in 
length, with no cellar walls. The siding was black walnut, six inches wide, 
half an inch thick, all rough, except the window and door frames. The price 
of all this lumber was forty dollars per thousand, the shingles five dollars 
per thousand. Its cost is easily estimated. Wages of hands were low, not 
to exceed two dollars a day, though lumber at forty dollars was considered 
high. 

Truth works out in various ways. Almost forty years from the time of 
the burning of that house, Mrs. Sherman, who at that time was the bride 
of the great statesman, in an interview given to Mi'S. Isabel Worrell Ball, 
published in the Topeka Capital April 26th, 1896, gave one of the most racy 
interviews ever published of that remarkable epoch in Kansas and American 
history. Mrs. Ball having told her she was from Kansas: 

" Kansas," she repeated after me, with a smile on her gentle face ; " I ex- 
pect, my dear, that I knew Kansas long before you were born. I didn't 
exactly take my wedding tour there, but went so soon after my marriage 
that it might be called that. It was in 1856, when my husband was made 
a member of the Congressional Investigating Committee to look into and 
report the alleged frauds in the elections just held in Kansas. . . . When 
we got to Lawrence it was 9 o'clock at night. We were not expected, and I 
presume it would not have made much difiference if we had been, for the 
town was full. The Eldridge House was not then quite completed; but the 
shavings and lime were swept oflf into a corner and a bed was made for us 
on the floor. 

" The next morning, Governor and Mrs. Robinson — though he was not 
Governor then — came and took Mr. Sherman and myself out to their house 
on Mt. Oread. I can see it all plainly. The house was a little frame affair, 
with a rough board floor full of cracks. I was mortallv afraid of snakes; 



51 

and I had been told that snakes often stuck their heads up through the 
floors. So of course I was always looking for snakes there, but none ever 
visited my vision. The house was perfectly new, and the plastering yet so 
soft that I could dent it with my fingers." 

The only better evidence than this as to the extravagant, unwarranted, 
aggregated, duplicated, triplicated, quadrupled, sextupled value of this house 
charged to Kansas, was the owner's acknowledgment in reply to J. H. 
Shimmons, when he said " all the claimants made such charges." 

He first presented a claim to Mr. Strickler for $10,000 for false imprison- 
ment, and failing with that just and upright Democrat, he reduced it to 
$500, and presented it to the committee of two Republicans and one Demo- 
crat, to have it rejected again. Like a Peter Funk auctioneer, he presented 
the "sufferings of Charles Robinson, — going, going, who ofi'ers $10,000? 
No bidders — put it on the shelf ! " And again he comes into the market : 
" Going, going ! who offers $500 ? No bidders ! " And it lies upon the shelf 
dishonored and reprobated every day of the forty years since the attempt to 
grasp that sordid lucre from the exhausted empty coffers of the people, and 
formulate it into a State debt running up with others of like character into 
millions, grasping their property with the firmness of a mortgage, upon all 
they had or might acquire. 

During these days of tribulation, one beautiful morning, September 13. 
1856, one hundred and one brave, bold, defiant men, with steady step and 
countenance unblanched with fear, under the aim of cavalry carbines and 
uplifted swords marched into the Lecompton prison on the grave charge of 
" murder " because they had captured and driven away the menacing Pro- 
Slavery forces fortified at Hickory Point! Robinson's position was that of 
a civilian, who never sat a squadron in the field nor exercised a single in- 
dividual in the manual of arms. These men gallantly met the foes of free- 
dom. On the precedent set by Robinson — $10,000 per man — that was the 
nucleus for a rich " reprisal," worth one million ten thousand dollars. And 
yet the avaricious idea of levying tribute upon their fellow-sufferers never 
entered the brain of one of these patriots. 

It would naturally be supposed that if Robinson was the leading spirit 
in all the history of Kansas, public attention might be called to some bene- 
ficial law which he was instrumental in enacting. No one has ever attempted 
any such impossibility. Robinson first opposed the movement for the Topeka 
Constitution, then fell in with it, and was a candidate for delegate to the 
Big Springs Convention, but was defeated by Lane. This was Lane's first 
ofiicial entry into the Free-State cause. Robinson was subsequently elected 
a delegate to the Topeka Constitutional Convention, and Governor under its 



52 

Constitution. That movement was thwarted by President Pierce and a Pro- 
Slavery Congress. He was elected Governor under our present Constitu- 
tion, October 4th, 1859. This was before the expose of his fraudulent bond 
transaction. That transaction as completely ended his usefulness as if he 
had been dead ; but if anything was needed to keep him down, it was brought 
on him in the frauds against the State heretofore alluded to. To put him, 
if possible, still further beyond the hopes of political resurrection, he secured 
the election of Robert S. Stevens, the accomplice in the sale of the State 
bonds for 60 cents on the dollar when the law required that they should 
not be sold for less than 90 cents, out of which he escaped by an alibi, 
although the record showed his complicity by his own authority for the sale 
at any price. In this election Col. Charles H. Jennison appeared as his 
friend and Stevens's friend, with 60 armed men, voted, and was ready as a 
'•'killer" to protect the illegal voting; and 1100 votes were cast, or counted 
and cast together, in Lawrence, when that city, by the United States census 
taken by Hon. Geo. A. Eeynolds, had but 1600 inhabitants, men, women 
and children, and more than half of the adult male inhabitants, including 
Captain F. B. Swift's and Capt. Samuel Walker's companies, were in the 
field fighting for their country. This was Nov. 5th, 1861, less than three 
months after Gen. Lyon fell at Springfield. After this outrage upon the 
polls through Robinson's military power, President Lincoln entirely ignored 
him, and conferred almost exclusive power in Kansas, military and civil, 
upon Gen. Lane. This needs no proof. Every writer sustaining Robinson 
upon the subject and pretending to loyalty has admitted it as one of the 
" mysteries " of Lincoln's administration, and every rebel has charged it 
upon Lincoln. 

SUMMARY OF ONE TRANSACTION. 

In tiie same campaign a circular was published and circulated 
in Douglas county, from which the following is quoted. It ex- 
plains why Morrow^s picture adorns G. W. Brown's Gov. 
Walker book. He was a ^^ business " partner in the ^^ Red Dog " 
Bank. 

The balance of the enormous sum of $12,400 not paid to Bob Morrow 
for provisions and the Robinson buggy-hire was $8831.46. This money was 
deposited in Robinson, Morrow and Stevens's Red Dog bank at Lawrence; 
and in the meantime between July and the following January the State paid 
its creditors in scrip and warrants and Robinson and Stevens's bank bought 



'63 

them up at forty and fifty cents on the dollar with this very money that 
they had promised the State for the bonds. The case summed up stands 
thus: The Legislature authorizes the issuance of $20,000 in State bonds, 
known as war bonds, made payable two years after date and drawing in- 
terest at the rate of ten per centum per annum. Governor Charles Robin- 
son signs $40,000 of these bonds when he had authority to sign only $20,000, 
and through his appointee and tool. Button, sold $31,000 to Governor Rob- 
inson's partner for $12,400; Stevens sells them to the Government for 
$29,450. Keeping $17,050 for their trouble, they buy State scrip and war- 
rants from the dear people at 50 cents on the dollar with the remaining 
$8831.46. 

To strike a balance it would appear thus: 

Received from the State Government, $31,000.00. ^ 

Discount to General Government at 5 per cent $1,550.00 

Paid Robinson and Stevens for negotiating said bonds 17,050.00 

Paid Robinson's partner, R. Morrow, army-supply contractor, one- 
half of which was profit, price of said supplies having been 
based on scrip supposed to be worth 50 cents on the dollar. . . . 922.50 

Messenger bill 467.18 

Robinson's buggy bill 1,002.50 

Profits on $8,831.46 of State money invested in State warrants 

and scrip bought at 50 cents on the dollar 4,415.73 

Total as Robinson & Stevens's share ." $25,407.91 

The dear people's share 5,592.09 

Total '. $31,000.00 

For further particulars, see Impeachment Cases, page 324. 



HOW ROBINSON GAVE LAND FOR THE UNIVERSITY. 

The same circular tells how the Governor gave land for the 

State University: 

Governor Robinson has had much to say about his generosity in giving 
forty acres of his land to the State for a University site, but he fails to tell 
his audience that the University being built where it is, enhanced the bal- 
ance of his land to a far larger valuation than the whole was before the 
University was built. He also fails to tell them that the business men 
of the city subscribed and paid to him a large sum of money — more than 
the land was worth, in consideration of this conveyance; and that some of 
the subscribers got embarrassed and could not pay their subscription, and the 
Governor sued the balance' of the subscribers and made them pay their own 



54 

subscriptions, together with the subscriptions of those that could not pay. 
E. W. Wood put his name to the subscription paper to the amount of ten 
dollars, as he supposed, but in law the reading of the paper made every 
subscriber liable for the whole amount; consequently Mr. Wood was sued for 
the amount of $412 as his share. The matter was afterwards compromised, 
and Mr. Wood got off by paying within a few cents of forty dollars. This is 
only on a par with the rest of Gov. Robinson's transactions. Yet he is a very 
liberal man with the use of the word liar. 



GUTHRIE AND ROBINSON. 

The journals of Abelard Guthrie are now in my possession. 

Some years since, I published some extracts from them. To 

show the manner in which Robinson treated Guthrie, a few of 

these extracts are given here: 

Friday, 15th October, 1858. — This trouble and all others I have suffered 
the past year [comes] from over-confidence in C, Robinson, who authorized 
me to buy lands but leaves me to pay for them — not even coming near me, 
but avoiding me as if he were afraid of hearing the truth. I have never 
known such ,€old-blooded ingratitude before. I have placed unbounded confi- 
dence in him, and he has shown as boundless a disregard of honor, gratitude, 
and honesty. 

Saturday, 9th April, 1859. — I remarked that the debt was not mine, 
and I would not pay it. He said he would sue me immediately, and I told 
him to do so. This note was given for lands bought for C. Robinson and 
others, and Robinson was to give his note, on which I was to go as security, 
and my note was to be returned to me. After I had given the note, however, 
Robinson avoided the fulfillment of his promise, and thus I am held responsi- 
ble for his debt. I told Smith, Robinson's confidential tool, that I wished to 
settle this and other matters amicably, but settled they must be; and I am 
led to believe from Smith's remarks that Robinson will not pay unless com- 
pelled, showing that he is a swindler of the worst stamp. 

Monday, 23d May, 1859. — Went to Quindaro, where I met Charles Rob- 
inson. The cool villainy of this man would be incredible, did I not witness 
such repeated evidences of it. About thirty months ago he left with me $700 
to buy a piece of land for him, and I gave him a receipt for the money. 
The land belonged to Isaac W. Zane, and lies in Missouri, opposite Quindaro j 



55 

the price was $1400, and he required $800 in hand; this I paid him, ad- 
vancing $100 of my own money, and gave my note for the remaining $600, 
payable in one year, Robinson being absent. I had therefore to secure myself 
by taking the bond for a deed in my own name. To-day, when I saw him 
in the Q. Co.'s office, his man Chapin presented the bond to me with an 
assignment written on the back of it, which he requested me to sign. This 
assignment conveyed all my right to Robinson, and authorized Zane to make 
him a deed, Robinson remarking at the same time that he would take up 
my note and close up the whole business, but said nothing of the $700 re- 
ceipt or the $100 advanced! When I mentioned these things he said he had 
given me credit on the books and probably destroyed my receipt! But the 
books were examined, and no credit [had been] given! His design was evi- 
dently to get the title to the land perfected, to have me pay the note of $600, 
and when time should favor, present my receipt and compel me or my estate 
to pay it also! The $100 he seemed to consider already safe in his pocket! 
After the repeated acts of treachery and ingratitude of which he is 
guilty, this proposition would seem more like a premeditated insult than the 
trap of a cunning scoundrel. Yet this is his peculiar plan of operations — 
he assumes that people will regard him as above suspicion; pretend great 
ignorance and simplicity in business; to entrust the care of his affairs to 
others, who have no character to sustain nor reputation to lose; he is in 
fact a perfect confidence man, with a more than ordinary amount of cunning. 

Wednesday, 29th June, 1859. — Met C. Robinson, with whom I had some 
plain talk about the management of the Quindaro Co.'s affairs and about his 
own acts. He is a thorough villain, — cool, calculating, heartless, ungrateful, 
and audacious. 



11. I 

ROBINSON AND THE aUANTRILL MASSACRE. 

Every Kansan knows the story of this horrible event. Eobin- 
son attempts to explain his action on that bloody day. I shall 
let him tell his own story — weak and pitiable enough, God 
knows. These extracts are taken from his own book — The Kan- 
sas Conflict: 

For Dr. Robinson the border ruffians had great respect, and when at 



56 

Lawrence they had seized the polls and driven all other Free- State men 
away, on his approach they cried out, " Here comes the Doctor; let him vote." 
and the way was cleared. Even in the terrible massacre during the Lawrence 
raid, and when the Doctor slowly retired from his barn to the brow of Mt. 
Oread, near where several of Quantrill's men were on guard, they did not 
molest him. There was a certain something, a strange, commanding influ- 
ence, a presence that neutralized for the time being any power to do him 
harm. — Preface, p. ccvi. 

Under Governor Carney's administration the retaliatory raids, which Rob- 
inson had feared and guarded against as best he could, occurred, including 
the massacre of one hundred and eighty-three people of Lawrence by Quan- 
trill, August 21, 1863. The border was now under control of volunteer gen- 
erals and other officers, with Lane as master of ceremonies, although without 
a commission. It was no secret that an expedition in the border counties of 
Missouri was preparing to enter Kansas in retaliation for the outrages of 
Lane and his thieves, yet it was permitted by a Union force of one hundred 
men to march forty miles to Lawrence, kill nearly two hundred people and 
burn the town, spending three or four hours at the work of destruction, be- 
fore Federal officers could straighten out their red tape and join in pursuit. 
However, after leaving what was left of Lawrence, about three hundred citi- 
zens and Federal troops were rallied under Lane and Colonel Plumb, who 
did escort duty to the one hundred and seventy-five men under Quantrill. 
They escorted them over the line into Missouri with due consideration, not 
a gun being fired or a man injured. It should not be inferred, however, 
that Lane was afraid of blood or opposed to killing people, as afterwards, 
when Quantrill was not near, he marched through some of the counties of 
Missouri and made a clean sweep of all he found, whether Union or dis- 
union, Quantrill was more considerate than Lane had been, as he told one 
of his prisoners, taken at the Eldridge House, that he should spare the 
women from outrage, which Lane in his raids in Missouri did not do. He 
also said, as Robinson, while Governor, did what he could to preserve peace 
on the border, he should not molest him or his property. Of this intention 
Robinson had no knowledge, but both his person and property were spared, 
although the raiders were within a short distance of him, and in full view, 
and could have destroyed him and his property Avithout trouble. Had the 
raid not been for retaliation for similar raids in Missouri, there is no reason 
why Robinson's property should not have shared the fate of Lane's, nor why 
he should not have been killed as were others when completely in the power 
of the raiders. 



57 

So great was the shock to the country of this Quantrill retribution that it 
was necessary something should be done to obscure the delinquencies of the 
officials, and "General Order No. 11" was issued, depopulating some of the 
border counties of Missouri. Loyal and disloyal citizens alike had to vacate 
and leave their homes to the tender mercies of the thieves and despoilers, who 
left nothing but chimney-stacks as monuments of the desolation in their 
wake. This order was a most humiliating confession of the utter failure 
of the war of rapine, permitted, if not encouraged, by the officials at Wash- 
ington under Lane and his red-leg thieves, whether within or without the 
ranks of the army. Had the President favored the policy of protecting non- 
combatants, as the officials of the States of Missouri and Kansas desired, 
" Order No. 11" would have never been needed, and Quantrill's raid at 
Lawrence would never have occurred. 

It must be borne in mind that the Kansas troops referred to by the 
general officers and by the writer comprised only a small portion under the 
control or influence of Lane and his partisans. The large majority of Kansas 
troops were under control of honorable officers who despised such conduct and 
would have no share in it. The bulk of Kansas troops made an honorable 
record, and no State could excel Kansas in the proportion furnished to the 
army, or show a greater percentage of lost in battle. Kansas may be 
justly proud of her war record, with these exceptions, and will not fail to 
confer the highest honors upon her brave warriors. 

One other raid, called the " Price raid," menaced Kansas, but General 
Pleasonton was close in Price's rear, while General Deitzler, in command of 
about ten thousand of the State militia, Curtis, Blair, Moonlight, and others, 
met him on the State line. He beat a hasty retreat towards Arkansas, and 
the war-clouds on the border were dissipated. It has been unfashionable and 
unpopular to breathe the least criticism of the conduct of the late war, and 
its officers, from the President down; but the time has passed when it will be 
deemed honorable warfare to kill and outrage women and children, flocks, 
herds, and " all that breathe," of the enemy. Non-combatants, whether 
friends or foes, are entitled to be recognized as human beings; and that 
officer, whatever his rank, who will use his soldiers to persecute and despoil 
innocent people is a cowajdly brute, and should be held up to the scorn 
and contempt of civilized people. — P. 446. 

" Governor Robinson was in town that morning. . . . He was per- 
mitted quietly to survey the whole transaction from his barn on the hill- 
side." — Dr. Cordley's History of Lawrence, p. 195. 



58 

SPEER'S REPLY. 

It is but justice that John Speer — the noblest Koman of 
them all, who suffered the death of his children and loss of his 
property on that dreadful day of sack and pillage and blood — 
should reply to the remarkable admissions, charges and insinua- 
tions contained in the foregoing. This reply is from a MS. in 
the library of the Historical Society : 

In this everything in its connection is perverted and every crime justi- 
fied. No intelligent person who saw them has ever estimated Quantrill's 
forces at less than 300; but this man, condemned of his fellow-citizens — a 
man of intellect and of power — ostracized by the people of Kansas for ten 
years, the most eventful in history, condemned by Abraham Lincoln from the 
time his administration commenced till his death — soured, discontented, his 
ambition thwarted — justifying the most damnable massacre in civilized 
warfare — painted as a saint, a savior, a philanthropist and a statesman by 
sycophants, ... a man who assails Senator Plumb as " escorting " that 
man's own friend " over the border, not a gun being fired or a man in- 
jured," boasting that " his person and his property were spared," because 
" he [Robinson] did what he could to preserve peace on the border," while 
every man of sense knows that on account of Missouri invasions there was no 
peace in Kansas for ten years, and no invasion in Missouri for nearly four 
years before the war. The malignance against Plumb is accounted for in 
the fact that Plumb was the chairman of the committee in the unanimous 
indictment of Gov. Robinson by the House, backed by authority, in Robin- 
son's own handwriting, to sell bonds, out of which he escaped on trial by 
the Senate proving an alibi. The statement about " sparing women " is a 
charge not necessary to be defended in behalf of Kansas troops; and Robin- 
son's defense of his protector Quantrill on the score can only be accounted 
for from an unscrupulous man maddened by his thwarted ambitions and 
crazed in his disgrace. A virtuous woman will almost lose her life before she 
will speak of such usage. One instance, though : Quantrill's demons entered 
the house of one of our most estimable citizens; ransacked the bureau, dis- 
covered infant's clothes, and fiendishly exclaimed : " You are going to have 
a baby, eh ! " The poor woman shrieked out, in appeals for mercy, an affirm- 
ative; and that woman, almost dead, was taken from the scenes of Lawrence 
horrors, and died in Detroit, Michigan! Robinson says that "afterward 
[after the Quantrill massacre] when Quantrill was not near, he [Lane] 



59 

marched through some of the counties of Missouri, and made a clean sweep 
of all men found, whether Union or dis-Union." As Lane had no command 
then, and never went into Missouri with a command more than two days 
after the raid, and never thereafter entered Missouri with any command or 
any force whatever prior to the Price raid, it would be interesting to know 
how fast Quantrill ran to be not near Lane. Lane was only in company with 
thirty-five men, and not in command, as is stated by Col. John K. Rankin, 
who lined them up and counted them. If Quantrill was a good man, protect- 
ing so good a man as Robinson, why did he want him killed? If Quantrill 
was a bad man, and Robinson was then and always a leader of men, why 
did he not go out and kill him himself? 

This question of why the murdered people of Lawrence received no pro- 
tection from Robinson is an interesting one, indeed. Robinson's friends have 
made several attempts to explain his position on that terrible day, although 
no enemy of his ever raised a question, till now, about it. He was a mile 
and a quarter from his home when Quantrill entered town under his eye 
at daybreak. His organ, the Lawrence Journal, explained the situation by 
saying that " Gov. Robinson owed his life to his habits of early rising," and 
was out for a morning walk. Rev. Dr. Cordley, in his history of Lawrence, 
said he was out at his barn to harness his horses. In fact, Robinson lived 
at the north end of Massachusetts street, opposite where Pierson's mill 
stands, and his friend. Gen. Deitzler, escaped by being in that house, while 
Robinson was in his barn about ten rods from the summit of Mt. Oread, just 
east of the State University, the most eligible point of observation that could 
have been selected to have viewed that scene of carnage, if he had viewed 
with the delight of a matador in a Spanish bull-fight. Sidney Clarke, 
living near the corner of Tennessee and Berkeley streets, half a mile 
nearer danger, escaped over Mt. Oread. General Lane, a mile north, es- 
caped out of his back window in his night-clothes, and with a pair of pants 
of a neighbor's too short for him; and with a neighbor's hoxse, rallied thirty- 
five men, and with Col. John K. Rankin, a military man who happened to 
be at home from his command, on a furlough, pursued Quantrill into Mis- 
soviri, though Col. Rankin and Lane separated five miles from the Missouri 
line. Accordingly, there was Robinson harnessing his team, stopping and 
remaining during all that dreadful scene of carnage, pillage and murder, 
witnessing it with the complacency of a Nero without a fiddle, in hearing of 
the screams of women, and children, wives, mothers, neighbors, and friends, 
and he, the great leader of men, whose beck was recognized as a command 
and obeyed with the alacrity of loyal soldiers. Why did not this hero, born 



60 

to command, mount a horse and lead another for some comrade to ride, and 
flee with the swiftness of the wind, rallying every man from Lawrence to 
Lecompton, ten miles west, as he could have done, and throw his life into 
the breach for the protection of human life? What a satisfaction his after- 
life must have been to him in the knowledge of the fate of many who stood 
by him through good and evil report. Just think who of his special friends 
were killed! Robinson was a man whose wealth, shrewdness and ability 
brought him friends. At the house of Dr. Griswold, Robinson's friend, were 
Josiah E. Trask, the editor of Robinson's organ; Hon. S. M. Thorp, Senator, 
previously appointed by Robinson State Superintendent of Instruction; Dr. 
Griswold, and H. W. Baker, now as then of the house of Ridenour & Baker, — 
all Robinson's friends; enticed from Griswold's house under the solemn 
promise of protection, and all shot down in their tracks, all dying except 
Baker, whose pockets were pilfered and he was left for dead! We must not 
forget Judge Carpenter, Robinson's friend and candidate for Attorney- 
General at the next preceding election, who, wounded, with his wife and 
sister protecting him by their bodies, beseechingly appealed for mercy, their 
clothing pulled away from his body, as they fired shot after shot into the 
wounded man. Then there was Edward P. Fitch, the first school teacher in 
Kansas, Robinson's neighbor in the East, his bosom friend, hired and paid by 
Robinson to teach that school at the expense of the Emigrant Aid Company; 
honest, upright, philanthropic Fitch, the friend of mankind, the enemy of 
nobody — shot down in his house in the presence of his wife and three in- 
fant children — his body dragged from the building by his wife, she cursed 
and rudely flung away from it, and the body thrown back into the flames 
and consumed — the poor wife seen looking at his photograph with her 
children around her, and that photograph as the widow and orphans looked 
at the last semblance of a husband's and a father's face, fiendishly grasped 
by Robinson's friends, and cast into the flames. Great God! does Robinson 
say that these were his friends justifiably and honorably retaliating " within 
a short distance of him and in full view and could have destroyed him and 
his property toithout trouble! " 

Quantrill knew every man of those particular friends of Robinson as well 
or better than he knew Robinson, and could easier have saved them than to 
have saved Robinson; for these massacres occurred almost if not exactly 
under his eye, while Robinson was a mile away. These facts stand patent in 
all history: That there is a record in the archives of Douglas county, 
Kansas, of 180 prisoners murdered, after the town was surrendered by mili- 
tary authority; and that in all the history of all the Kansas regiments 



61 

there never was the name of a prisoner given by these calumniators of 
Kansas, vv^ho was murdered by authority of a Kansas officer, or with his 
knowledge, unless they claim that such murder was committed by Col. Jen- 
nison, an enemy of Lane, appointed by Gov. Robinson. 

I hope I am neither obtrusive nor presumptive in referring to my own 
jDersonality in the dreadful massacre of Quantrill. Eight years before, I 
brought through the State of Missouri to Kansas three prattling boys, then 
aged respectively 11, 9 and 7 years. These children had never afterwards 
looked across the line of Missouri from Kansas. Neither they nor I had 
ever injured a Missourian nor a dollar's worth of a Missourian's property. 
The leaders had each of them orders for our death. Dr. Moore, brother of 
Hon. H. L. Moore, ex-member of Congress, heard these orders read, as 
Quantrill halted to read them before entering the city. 

God Almighty must have kept Robinson childless, that he might know 
no parental feeling, when he boasts that he was spared by Quantrill for his 
honorable character, and I was punished by the death of two of these chil- 
dren, — one burned to ashes, another shot, begging for mercy by asking his 
slayers to remove him, as they set fire to the building, his pleadings only 
having the effect to give him another death-shot, and his body only escaping 
the flames by the fire going out; while the youngest, a mere lad, escaped 
death by denying his name — a prisoner, abused, insulted, making two efforts 
to escape, each time buffeted and cursed, and threatened with death, a re- 
volver at his head, escaping at the third effort. Is it in human nature to 
quietly allow people to represent this man as the only specimen of true 
manhood known, and these martyr children as deservedly meeting their 
tragic deaths, and their mother — an anti-slavery woman of Southern parent- 
age — living a life of unexampled sorrow, and dying with a hope against all 
hope that the lost one in the ruins might have been a captive, to some day 
return to bless her life? 

Robinson pictures two cases as examples justifying this unparalleled 
massacre: one, the burning of Osceola by Lane; the other, the execution of 
the Pro-Slavery men on the Pottawatomie. 

Lane's action at Osceola consisted in marching into that town in broad 
daylight, driving armed resisting jebels before him, killing not to exceed 
eight men in fair battle, and burning the stores and storehouses of rebel 
supplies, — not a dwelling injured, nor a man, woman or child insulted. 
John Brown killed five men who had just previously sent him word to leave 
the State, on penalty of death, all of them desperate men standing ready to 
massacre every anti-slavery man in the community, — the leader, Allen Wil- 



62 

kinson, having been one of the men who led the Pro-Slavery invasion of 
the 30th of March, 1855, himself thereby elected Representative in the 
Territorial Legislature, and placed as chairman of the Committee of En- 
rollment, supervising a law which had seven distinct provisions for the death 
of any man holding the sentiments of John Brown on slavery. In the ver- 
nacular of the Missouri border ruffian, " John Bro\\Ti got the drop on them." 
If any " historian " among the professors has ever had a word to say in 
justification or palliation of John Brown, it has escaped my observation. So 
far as their expressions go in reference to his conduct and its surroundings, 
I have seen nothing from them to indicate that Bro^vn had any immediate 
provocation. A man might do desperate, disreputable deeds, under great 
provocation, which otherwise would never have occurred. Justice demands 
a recitation of the surroundings. What were they ? Only fifteen days before, 
an attempt was made, under pretext of a court of summons, to capture Gov. 
Beeder while acting as an attorney before the John Sherman investigating 
committee, — the real object to murder him as had been threatened, and at 
that very hour nobody knew but that he had been murdered. No man can 
read the diary of Gov. Reeder's escape and know the character of the men in 
pursuit of him, and believe for a moment that if he had been captured while 
in disguise as a laborer with an ax on his shoulder he would not have been 
instantly murdered, and it is no stretch of imagination, in view of what has 
been done to men branded as " abolitionists," to predict that he might have 
been burned at the stake. But three days before John Brown's " retaliation," 
the ruffian Brooks attempted the murder of Senator Sumner at his seat in 
the halls of the U. S. Senate, from the wounds of which he did not recover 
for more than a year. Let it stand as it does as history, that all the testi- 
mony against John Brown, taken at the time, was by witnesses spirited away 
from their Kansas abodes, more than sixty miles, and taken before Joseph 
W. Goforth, a justice of the peace in Westport, Mo., a place where it would 
have been instant death, as was intended with Gov. Reeder, to ask a single 
cross-question. On the contrary, in Kansas, the Pro-Slavery party had every 
opportunity, supported by the U. S. army, for a fair and impartial investi- 
gation. Very recently, I asked this question of Hon. James F. Legate, then 
indicted for treason, and always a conservative man : " Now, Mr, Legate, tell 
me, after more than forty years since John Brown's actions in the killing of 
those men, what do you say of its effect? " " It was the best thing that any 
man could have done. It struck terror into the hearts of the oppressors of 
Kansas, and taught them a lesson, the most salutary in its effects." " Will 
you permit me to say so in your name, and stand by that declaration ? " 



63 

" Proclaim it wherever you please ! " and his big fist came down with em- 
phasis. There is a time for everything. The time to be a hero and a philan- 
thropist was then, in John Brown's camp. The time to be a doughface and a 
sycophant, repeating the ruffian slanders on Kansas, seems to be now. 
Gov. Robinson (August 30th, 1877,) presided over the great meeting at 
Osawatomie on the erection of a monument to John Brown, and made a most 
laudatory speech at Paola on the old hero,, following Senator Ingalls as 
principal orator. 

All the testimony taken against John Brown was that expert testimony 
taken when no opportunity was afforded to cross-examine a single witness. 
I have no doubt he killed those men, and I am as positively sure, and there 
is much more testimony against them than against John Brown, that they 
gave him notice, time after time, that he was to be killed with all his anti- 
slavery neighbors. Wilkinson, the head man of the murderous gang, had led 
the invasion and the polluting of the ballot-boxes, March 30th, 1855, and was 
by that invasion elected a member of the Legislature and was made chairman 
of the Committee on Enrollment, and was active in formulating that bar- 
barous slave law with seven provisions in it for hanging " abolitionists '' — 
three for not less than ten years in the penitentiary, two for not less than 
five years, and one for not less than two years; and another provision that 
" no person who is conscientiously opposed to holding slaves, or who does 
not admit the right to hold slaves in this Territory, shall sit as a juror on 
the trial of any prosecutions for any violation of any of the sections of 
this act." 

WHAT MAJOR EDWARDS SAYS. 

As a fiirtlaer refutation to Robinson's charge, " They [Lane 
and Plumb] escorted them over the line into Missouri with due 
consideration, not a gun being fired or a man injured/' I quote 
from the account of the retreat ^T-itten by Col. John ^. Ed- 
wards in his History of QuantriU and His Men: 

Missouriward from Kansas ten miles the guerrillas halted to rest a little 
and feed a little. The day's savage work had been exhausting as it had been 
bloody. Wrought up during all the forenoon to the keenest intensity, the 
relaxation of the afternoon was beginning to tell upon the men. Before 
either men or horses had finished eating, the pickets were driven in and the 
rear pressed to the girth. Todd and Jarrette held it as two lions that had 



64 

not broken their fast. Step by step, and fighting at every one, they kept 
pursuit at arm's-length for ten miles farther. The Federals would not 
charge. Overwhelming in numbers and capable of enveloping at any moment 
everything of opposition, they contented themselves with firing at long range 
and keeping always at about a deadly distance from the rear. The guer- 
rillas, relying principally upon dash and the revolver, felt the need of a 
charge to get rid of the incessant buzzing of the minie balls which now and 
then stung them grievously. Todd spoke to Quantrill of the annoyance of 
the tireless, tenacious pursuit, and Quantrill halted the whole column for a 
charge. The detachments on either flank had some time since been gathered 
up, and the men brought face to face with urgent need — turned about quick 
and dressed up in line handsomely. As Todd came trotting up with the rear 
guard, he fell in upon the left and Quantrill gave the word. The Federal 
pursuit had barely time to fire a volley before it was rent in shreds and scat- 
tered upon the prairie. The unerring revolver at short range did its work 
go well that for several hours thereafter the pursuit was more respectful 
by far and considerably less galling to the guerrillas. That single volley, 
however — fired in the very midst of the gallop — wounded Noah Webster, 
Geo. Maddox, Gregg, Peyton Long, Hi George and Allen Parmer, and killed 
the horses of Todd, Jarrette, Jesse James, and Bill Anderson. Jarrette laid 
hold upon a mustang pony some comrade was leading, and tried to saddle it 
for twenty minutes. Serene under the fire of quite a regiment, and deter- 
mined to succeed in mastering the stubborn animal if he was shot for it, 
Jarrette lingered and lingered. In addition, he had in the pockets of his 
McClellan saddle over $8000 in greenbacks, taken from a Lawrence bank, 
which he was bringing to Missouri for distribution among the widows and 
orphans of the war. Try how he would, however, the mustang was more 
than a match for the guerrilla. He could neither bridle him, saddle him, nor 
mount him bareback. The Federals were within pistol-shot and the bullets 
were everywhere. Jarrette, until then unconscious of his danger, or indiffer- 
ent to it, began to cast his eyes about him for escape. Across the prairie to 
Quantrill it was at least a mile. Arch Clements had carried Jesse James 
back, Hicks George had done the same for Todd, and Frank James had 
taken up Jarrette behind him. Jarrette would not abandon the pony for 
anybody's help, and there he was — alone, and well-nigh succorless. Aware 
from the reports of those who had gone forward of Jarrette's desperate ex- 
tremity. Cole Younger, at the imminent risk of his own life, dashed back 
to the rescue, took Jarrette up under a distressing fire and regained the 
column with him, followed by two hundred well-mounted cavalry to within 
pistol-range of the rear guard, formed to give him a breathing chance. 



65 

From behind every hilltop, at the crossing of each creek, from the midst 
of every belt of timber, Quantrill fought the pursuit, falling back in splendid 
order and forming again as the country favored, without haste or confusion. 
At three o'clock in the afternoon Younger and Anderson relieved Todd and 
Jarrette, fighting equally as well, and holding everything in the hands of 
stubbornness and defiance. 



III. 
OPINIONS FROM VARIOUS SOURCES. 

The following quotation will serve to show something of how 
Robinson was regarded as early as 1855: 

[ From the Kansas Free State, July 30, 1855.'] 

Two weeks since, the Herald announced that it would publish the next 
week a reply to " an assault on the Emigrant Aid Company by one of the 
editors of this place." We glanced over the Herald to see what could be 
said in reply to the article, but we sought in vain to find any reply to it. 
We found, however, an article over the signature of C. Robinson, written in 
a highly malicious and vindictive spirit, evincing a deep-seated hatred, and a 
cherished maliciousness, coupled with a recklessness of expression only char- 
acteristic of the vilest calumniator, charging us with editing a Pro-Slavery 
paper, " and doing all we can to make Kansas a slave State." Let him 
ponder well all the horrors of his misdeeds in California, before he would 
sully the fair fame of us, whom he deeply envies. He smarts under the 
failure of his swindling operations, when he comes to Kansas and finds that 
two young men, editors of the Free State, know something of the laws regu- 
lating the public lands, especially in reference to preemption claims and 
town-sites, and that they were instrumental in preventing him from swin- 
dling four or five legal claimants out of their valuable claims. Because we 
did this, he like another person, whose lawless course has been arrested, 
seeks all the vile means he can to crush us to the earth, and drive us from 
the Territory. It is well known that he advised and abetted a number of 
persons last winter in forcibly taking timber from the claims of individuals 
around the touTi-site, which was laid off on the legal claims of others. But 
after a time he and his friends saw so many letters from the hand of the 
Attorney-General of the United States and Land Commissioner Wilson, 



66 

stating so strongly that his course was unlawful, and could not be sanctioned, 
that his friends became quite small in numbers. Then it was that the town- 
site matter was satisfactorily settled, Robinson declaring publicly that he 
would be the last man that would say aught against the arrangement. Yet 
in his article he says that our friends have obtained their interests by fraud, 
so little does he regard his word. Some time after the settlement, the deed 
and most of the other papers connected with the town-site were purloined 
from the office of Mr. Hutchinson, — the deed by S. N. Wood, and the other 
papers by some unknown persons, — and a great effort was made to break 
up the whole arrangement, but it signally failed. No doubt Robinson was 
connected with it. Now there is another conspiracy on hand, and we have 
the best evidence that Robinson is the great Catiline of it; though he in 
all cases lies behind the curtain. Its object is to take from the legal claim- 
ants all the lots they have and give them to such persons as have come in 
lately, and have no right to them whatever. These are a few of the reasons 
why this man slanders us. He has evinced a design ever since we first saw 
him on Oread Mount (K. T.) last August, when, after the usual formalities, 
we mentioned our design to establish the "Kansas Free State" in the Ter- 
ritory. It being near dark, he immediately left us all alone to near 12 
o'clock in the night, when we caught our horse and went in search of a cabin 
in which to spend the night. No honorable man would treat a stranger in 
this manner. He soon determined that our honest face as editor and he 
could not long exist together harmoniously. We say that ever since this 
time he has designed to crush us out of the Territory. His aim was that the 
Herald of Freedom should monopolize the printing business in Kansas, and 
that all other papers should be kept out, and he and his friends industriously 
circulated the charges that we were Pro-Slavery, before we ever issued a 
single sheet of the Free State, and after he had seen our prospectus posted 
all over town. These charges of Pro-Slavery first appeared as editorial in 
the Herald. Afterward, S. N. Wood, about to get an interest in the Tribune, 
thought he would contribute his share to get us out of the way by another 
broadside through its columns ; and what is most mean, Robinson pretends to 
answer some statement about the Aid Company, which we defy any man to 
prove false, and takes occasion in a column and a half to renew the slander- 
ous charges. As the organ is partially under his control, no doubt he advised 
Brown that this would be the most effectual means to destroy us. But as 
Brown soon tired out playing this vile game, Robinson has concluded to take 
it up. It is a combined system of persecution for the purpose either of 
making us abandon our enterprise or driving us on the Pro-Slavery side, in 



67 

order that the Herald may increase its business. But the fools greatly mis- 
take the metal they have to deal with. And we would advise them not to 
Bend any more Pro-Slavery men to our office for the purpose of buying us 
out. We were astonished to find so many applications to purchase from both 
Free-State and Pro-Slavery men, coming from that quarter; something that 
exhibits a degree of envy and hatred that we had not even suspected our- 
selves. 

But Robinson pronounces everyone Pro-Slavery who does not subscribe 
to all his wild notions about slavery, and the way to make Kansas free. 
The result is, that his followers have dwindled down to about fifty men in 
the whole Territory. Because most men are about as much opposed to white 
slavery as they are opposed to black, and will not be slaves to his very 
peculiar notions about all the various issues of the day. We are very sorry 
that there should be any division in the ranks of the Free-State men at all, 
but Robinson, Brown and Wood will have it so, as far as we are concerned. 
For the moment we lay our shoulder t& the wheel and push all we can, they 
let go all hold and commence cutting our vitals out. Our life is in danger 
to come near them; so with these envious feelings and absurd fanatical 
notions, we hold their presence in the Territory as injurious to the cause 
of freedom as is the presence of Atchison, Stringfellow, and the Rev. Thomas 
Johnson, and shall treat them all with the same contempt. Robinson and 
Wood have been connected with nearly every Free-State meeting ever held 
in Lawrence, and they have killed the whole of them; not one of which has 
resulted in any permanent organization. So very unpopular are these men 
that they poison everything they come in contact with. We have heretofore 
passed those slanderous attacks on our anti-slavery character unnoticed, 
knowing well that no sane man who had ever seen the Free State could 
believe a word of them. These slanders are published in the Herald and 
Freeman, which is a second edition of the Hefald, being issued at the office, 
and these papers are read in a very different locality from that which the 
Free State is circulated, and we have no doubt but that many persons have, 
from reading so much vile abuse, formed very erroneous opinions about us 
and our paper. We are not political editors in the modern sense of the 
term, therefore our political honesty and integrity are of as much value to 
us as our private characters, and we repel an attack on the one as quickly 
and in the same manner as we would that of the other. 

Erom F. B. Sanborn's Boston literary letter, published in 
the Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican, on the subject of 



68 

^^ Suborned Biographies/' I quote the following estimate of 
Robinson : 

It was such as this that I first saw Charles Robinson, whose character 
I take to be something like this: 

At bottom a thorough Yankee, of the earnest but not the broad type, ad- 
dicted to moral principle, but not above getting the best of a bargain, and 
with a fund of envy at his heart which kept him much of the time in jealousies 
and quarrels with his rivals; at the same time his experience of the world, 
and a natural prudence, made his way toward fortune and away from 
martyrdom comparatively easy up to a certain point. Beyond that he could 
not go in leadership, for neither nature nor training had fitted him to direct 
bodies of men, or to shape policies, beyond a sort of petty craft that he had, 
and that had commonly led him astray when great political interests were 
involved. He was brave enough; yet in the turmoils of Kansas he seldom 
exposed his life, and as " war Governor " his quarrels with Gen. Lane and 
others, and his distrust of Lincoln and other superior men, neutralized his 
patriotism and abilities, — the latter not great but average, and usually 
guided either by ambition or pecuniary prudence. His good sense and in- 
grained Yankee turn of mind made him value education and do what he 
could to promote it, and the State University at Lawrence owes something 
to him for its success; so, too, does the excellent Indian school near by. 
Politically he was in every party that existed in Kansas during the forty 
years he lived there, and while he was often right, he was quite as often 
obstinately wrong, and usually made his political quarrels personal ones, 
because with him everything tended sharply to personalities. As a public 
speaker and writer he was not above mediocrity; and equity and fair play 
towards an opponent were not his habit. He was violent in partisanship, 
now on this side, now on the other, and very unguarded in his language; 
having the easy resource of forgetting what he had said before, and flatly con- 
tradicting himself without scruple. Advancing age toned his violence down, 
perhaps, but, on the other hand, increased his amount of self-esteem, and his 
political disappointments gave a tinge of bitterness to his vanity which ruined 
his efforts at historical accuracy. There were many worse men in Kansas, 
known to me either personally or by repute ; but few were less amial)le, or less 
willing to follow the maxim, "Live and let live." His place in history is so 
far below John Brown's that it is idle to compare them; magnanimity, 
which was Brown's atmosphere, was an unknown region to Robinson. Lane 
could rise into it; but he commonly perched much lower down. 



69 

The following is the opinion G. W. Brown published of 
Charles Robinson in 1857. Brown was personally acquainted 
with him then. I do not know of any other written estimate 
of Robinson's character so rabid and abusive. And no one has 
made so many sycophantic estimates of Robinson^s holiness 
since 1857 as G. W. Brown: 

[ From the Herald of Freedom, May 16, 1857. '\ 
BASELY FALSE. 

It was stated by Charles Robinson last Friday night, in a public speech 
on the levee, that we proposed last spring, while a prisoner at Leeompton, to 
sell out the Free-State party, on condition of our liberation from prison; 
and that we told him subsequently that we induced Gov. Shannon to send to 
Leavenworth for him, that he — Robinson — would join in the sale and 
procure his liberation. A baser falsehood was never told by any man, nor 
one which has so little truth to sustain it. 

If we had done as Robinson alleges, we should have been guilty of pre- 
cisely the same act Robinson was guilty of the year previous, when Shannon's 
militia was surrounding Lawrence. The difference was, he claims that Lane 
made Shannon drunk, then he agreed to be subservient to the laws, and 
Mr. Jones declares even pledged himself to furnish Jones a posse whenever 
he wished to execute a process against the people of Kansas, and all for the 
purpose of inducing the Missourians to withdraw their forces from before the 
town, and not destroy it. 

Robinson says we sent for him to take part in the sale. Is it not probable, 
then, that we had too much conscience in the matter to do the dirty work 
ourself, but knowing how easy a matter it was for Robinson to make con- 
tracts of this character we sent for him on that account? That Robinson is 
ready at any time to sell out the party, no man who knows all the facts 
bearing upon his political action the last year can doubt for a moment. We 
publish over his own signature to-day a proposition to " sell out the party." 
If any man in Kansas has been guilty of a more open and direct effort in 
that direction, he deserves hooting from the Territory. This subject is an 
unpleasant one to us, and one we have no desire to follow. Because we 
thought Robinson had no right to voluntarily assume an office which he had 
resigned, has all this falsehood and scandal been heaped upon us. If the 
Free-State party shall suffer by the exposure which shall follow, let the 
censure rest on him and him only who commenced the assault. 



70 

Robinson stated that we assailed him when he resigned. On the contrary, 
we only mentioned the fact of his resignation in a three-line article, merely 
announcing the fact, and then we felt we were appropriating more space to 
the subject than the author was worth. 

(The proposition referred to as being over Robinson's signature "to sell 
out" the Free-State party is a proposition to acting Governor Stanton to 
take a part in the election of delegates to the Constitutional Convention to 
be held at Lecompton, and signed by C. Robinson, Wm. Hutchinson, Edward 
Clark, Ephraim Nute, jr., John Hutchinson, G. C. Brackett, E. S. Ladd, C. W. 
Babcock, G. W. Smith, Geo, E. Earle, Joseph Cracklin, G. Jenkins, G. Emery, 
John A. Wakefield, and J. A. Finley. 

This shows that the desire to vote was then among the people, and that 
the Free-State men were conscious of their growing power and anxious to 
make issue at the polls with the Pro-Slavery forces to get hold of the Terri- 
torial Government, and that this policy did not originate with G. W. Brown 
as he claims. — Wm. E. C.) 

Here are two opinions, of Charles Robinson by G. W. Brown. 
The reader can take bis choice. When be reads tbe second one 
be can also set bis own value on Brown's opinion of tbe contin- 
uance of slavery in tbe United States : 

[ From the Herald of Freedom, May 23, 1857.] 

No true friend of this paper desires to allow such villainous falsehoods 
as Robinson set on foot to pass without a plump denial; neither do they 
wish the author of such a malicious statement to escape retribution. While 
the blow was aimed at us, and we alone suffered, it was well, but when the 
recoil comes they tremble at the result. Circumstances have made Charles 
Robinson conspicuous in Kansas history, and circumstances will consign 
his memory to oblivion. 

In bis "Reminiscences of Governor Walker" (1902), G. W. 
Brown says : 

" Without Charles Robinson's hearty cooperation from that time forth, I 
firmly believe Kansas would be a slave State to-day, with all those new States 
and Territories lying west and north of here to the Pacific, as well as those 
at the south which were such at the time of the Great Rebellion." 



71 

ROBINSON IN CALIFORNIA. 

Kobinson condemns John Brown for what he calls opposition 
to law, but as he was himself resisting the Bogus Laws it is 
strange why John Brown should alone be singled out for abuse. 
He is particularly severe on Brown for belief in a higher law. 
Brown is also execrated for opposing established authority in 
Kansas. Let us see how consistent Robinson is on these points. 
Robinson went to California in pioneer days, and allied himself 
there with the enemies of public order and constituted authori- 
ties. If John Brown opposed law in Kansas, it was in the in- 
terest of humanity, not of himself. Property was Robinson's 
object — opportunity to obtain the land of J. A. Sutter. I make 
a few quotations from the History of California by Josiah 
Royce, published in the American Commonw^ealth Series, by 
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

" Dr. Charles Robinson, of Fitcliburg, Massachusetts, later so prominent 
as Governor of Kansas, was especially noteworthy as a squatter leader. 
. . . Obvious also his wicked and dangerous use in this connection of the 
then current abstractions about the absolute rights of man and the higher 
will of God, together with his diabolical activity in resisting the true will 
of God, which was of course at that time and place simply the good order of 
California. Every moral force, every force, namely, that worked for the 
real future prosperity of the new commonwealth, was ipso facto against 
these lawless squatters. . . . The cause of the riot was this: In August, 
1850, the squatters were deeply disappointed at an adverse decision in a suit 
of some importance brought against one of their number. Angry and defi- 
ant, they were disposed to take the advice of Dr. Robinson, and to appear 
in force, and arrived in the streets of Sacramento, and to resist by violence 
and forthwith all court processes served upon any of them. . . . Only 
about forty, however, were finally bold enough to follow Dr. Robinson to 
battle on August 14. . . . Shots were exchanged, three men were killed, 
one of them a squatter leader, and one the city assessor; and five persons 
(including Dr. Robinson) were wounded." 

Robinson ever holds up to view in his writings the fact that 



72 

he was not responsible for any of the trouble in Kansas. All the 

resistance to bogus laws and the authorities under them are laid 

at the doors of others. The facts are very clearly and accurately 

set forth in Mr. Elliott's paper read at the meeting of the 

" 56-ers" in Lawrence in September, 1902, from which I quote: 

"What are we? Subjects of Missouri. We come to the celebration of 
this anniversary with chains clanking about our limbs. We lift to heaven 
our manacled arms in supplication. Proscribed, outlawed, denounced, we 
cannot as much as speak the name of liberty, except with prison-walls and 
halters staring us in the face. ..." Had you rather Caesar were living, 
and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live all freemen ? " " Who 
is here so base that would be a bondman?" — Robinson's Fourth of July 
Speech, 1855. 

The whole burden of the address, impressed upon his hearers, 
was that patience w^as servility, and endurance cowardice. 

In the flush of indignation at Governor E-eeder's approval of 
the invasion of the polls from Missouri, by his granting certifi- 
cates to a majority of the members of the Legislature, an as- 
sumed leader, without consultation, sent East for a supply of 
Sharps rifles — the most effective weapon then known. Though 
obtained ostensibly to defend against invasion of the polls, the 
unadvised act was widely deprecated as unnecessary, as it was 
certain that there would be no further invasion, last of all of 
Lawrence, unless provoked; and in the hands of the rash and 
irresponsible element that would be the first to accept them, 
would lead to conflicts, that from the strained condition existing 
would involve the whole community. 

The sinister significance of the military and declamatory pro- 
ceedings was made apparent by the knowledge that the usurping 
legislators, on receiving a majority of their certificates, backed 
by their legal advisers, had defiantly proclaimed, before Robin- 
son and the other attending Free-State men, who had been sum- 



73 

moned to support Reeder, that they would ignore the supplemen- 
tary election, and give seats to those who had been denied. With 
his knowledge of this fact, his prompt dispatch for arms is ex- 
plained — as he has inspired Professor Spring to record — as 
" the first stroke in the projected scheme of anti-Missouri opera- 
tions,'' to which " Sharps rifles were an absolutely essential 
preliminary." 

This insurrectionary aspect was more sharply defined by the 
fact that five years before, the orator had led in a riotous assault 
against the legal authorities of California, in an attempt to un- 
settle the land titles in Sacramento, that had been quelled only 
by bloodshed and death. The story of this adventure, till then 
but vaguely known, and dimly remembered beyond its confines, 
was revived, with the personality of the leader magnified, and 
given renewed circulation — by his adherents, in the way of en- 
couragement; by his opponents, as a warning. 

That these premonitions were well grounded is attested by 
the author of the movement. In his retrospect of the California 
affair in the " Kansas Conflict " fifty years afterward, recount- 
ing approvingly the Sacramento insurrection in all its criminal 
minuteness, he refers to it as his precedent " on a small scale." 
The full significance of this will be grasped, when it is known 
that this precedent " on a small scale " had for its motive force 
an autocratic "manifesto," appealing to the "higher law," as 
opposed to the State law of California, and for its purpose the 
resistance by avowed force, of any " writ of restitution, based 
on any judgment or decree of any court in the county," with the 
ultimatum of martial law, when "the property and lives of 
those who [should] take the field against [the band] would 
share the fate of war. 



74 



G. W. BROWN. 



These statements [slanders of John Brown] are made up on the testi- 
mony of G. W. Brown, in the Herald of Freedom, in 1859. The witness may 
be competent, but he is not disinterested. He sustains the same relation to 
the anti-slavery men of '56 that Judas Iscariot did to the disciples, and is 
as well qualified to write their history as Judas Iscariot would be to revise 
the New Testament. — John J. Ingalls. 

G. W. Brown is and ever was a strange and odd character. 
He came to Kansas as the result of an arrangement with the 
Emigrant Aid Company, and admits in his latest book that he 
could not have come to the Territory and could not have sus- 
tained himself after he did come without the assistance of the 
Company. For many years he denied his connection with the 
Company in the violent terms commonly used by him. The 
documentary proof of his relations to the Company will be 
found herein. He claims to have saved Kansas to freedom, 
with the assistance of Robinson, and not only Kansas, but all 
the Union; (see his Walker book, p. 135.) He usually saved 
Kansas with the aid of both Kobinson and Thayer, but as his 
transactions were principally with Robinson in later years, it 
is feared Thayer may not get justice at his hands, or at least not 
be included in future stories and accounts of frightening Gov- 
ernors and army Generals into concessions that saved Kansas. 
But as the record is capable of indefinite extension in this 
direction, Thayer may be included in enough instances to sat- 
isfy his representatives. 

He was always turbulent and in bad repute with his news- 



75 

paper neighbors in Kansas. His reputation is fully described 
in the following quotations from the Territorial press; but a 
small portion of the record is given ; volumes of the same im- 
port remain; those presented in the following pages are as 
mild as I could select, and I preferred them to those of a more 
violent character. It will be observed that " You lie ! " was his 
ready retort as far back as 1858. Instances could be cited car- 
rying this characteristic to even a remoter day. His contem- 
poraries were spoken of in his paper as perjurers, villains, liars, 
scoundrels, swindlers, pickpockets, demons, and in other en- 
dearing and complimentary terms; and their articles are de- 
nominated forgeries, damnable falsehoods, base and villainous 
lies, depraved calumniations, foul and debased concoctions, and 
other chaste and elegant productions. With such a spirit of love 
and good-will pervading his sanctum as the above instances of 
his genius would indicate, it is not a matter of wonder that he 
records for us of this generation that he was an apostle of love 
in the old days when men were rude and times were rough and 
stormy. 

His assertions and allegations are always pitched in the su- 
perlative. When he began his second crusade for a holy life in 
Kansas history-makers, murder was a word too tame for him. 
Simple murder is almost no crime at all. It must be foul, dia- 
bolical, malicious, horrible, bloody, shocking, fiendish murder. 
It must be gruesome, and boys — mere babes — must be the 
\dctims. They must be sleeping innocently on a mother^s breast 
in a peaceful vale where holy quiet reigns. Then, to have John 
Brown and his men to descend stealthily in the gentle and peace- 
ful and loving times he pictures for us into this community of 
brotherhood where violence never came and the Golden Rule is 



76 

the only law, — to have them come into these Elysian fields at 
the dead hour of midnight and slay and butcher holy innocence, 
— that suits Gr. W. Brown. He will be satisfied with nothing 
less! If any modification is suggested, he raves and shouts 
'^ Murder foul ! " '^ Liar ! " " Private life must be holy, for 
Thayer and Kobinson and G. W. Brown were holy ! '' ^' Other 
men must be as good as we or they shall have no credit ! " 
^^ There are no other men as good as we ! " " If you have any 
desire to see fine examples of modern saints, look at me and 
Eli ! " ^' If you think we don't fill the bill, just cast your eye 
on Charley ! '' It is not unreasonable to expect his next produc- 
tion to have " murder '' always in red ink, with death-head 
before and cross-bones after the word. Recognized forms of 
speech are too gentle and inexpressive for him. 

Perhaps the strongest feature of his character is consistency. 
In 1857' John Brown is said to have been "noble-minded and 
generous," "the mark of tyrants,'' actuated from a "sense of 
duty, and whatever he does he does conscientiously." This was 
written almost a year after the Report of the Congressional 
Committee to investigate the troubles in Kansas was published 
(published in 1856). Everybody in the Territory who knew 
anything knew John Brown had led the party that did the 
killing. That party left the camp of the Eree-State men in 
open day, after announcing its purpose as it made its prepara- 
tions to depart. Every man there knew its destination and pur- 
pose. But G. W. Brown says the matter was denied and con- 
cealed, and he, poor innocent man, was deceived! And one 
of the most pathetic things in all history is the gross manner 
in which Robinson was "misled" in this matter. That guile- 
less patriot did not discover the deception practiced upon him 



77 

by these denials for more than twenty-one years! At that 
distance from these transactions John Brown was a second 
Jesus of ITazareth! N'o writer of Kansas history has, so far, 
charged Eobinson with idiocy, but if we are to believe his ex- 
pressed reason for changing his opinion of John Brown his 
idiocy will have to be alleged. When he got over being " mis- 
led," and they attended the Old Settlers' Meeting in 1879, the 
language used towards John Brown by G. W. Brown was the 
same he had applied to his journalistic contemporaries in Ter- 
ritorial times; which brings us back to the affirmation with 
which we began this paragraph. And as a further proof of his 
consistency, it is only necessary to mention the fact that no 
other man has brought graver charges against Robinson than 
has G. W. Brown. And that they were still bitter enemies as 
late as 1879 is established by an incident which occurred at the 
Meeting of the Old Settlers at Bismarck Grove. G. W. Brown 
was delivering some address on that occasion, I believe on pro- 
hibition, when Bobinson called him a ^^ piippy-'^ Brown re- 
torted by calling Bobinson a " cur." Knowing of this incident, 
and seeing what the Territorial press insisted was a strong point 
in his character, we can form a pretty fair conclusion of the 
consideration which induced him to take up the pen against 
John Brown at the instance of Charles Bobinson. I have no 
doubt that it did occur, for one of Bobinson's friends related the 
incident in the presence and hearing of an evening company 
within the last month. 

While consistency is believed the strongest point in the char- 
acter of this champion of holiness, there may be room for an 
honest difference of opinion in the matter. A friend writing 
me recently gave currency to a sentiment which may leave this 



78 

particular feature of the controversy in the gravest doubt. He 
says the most commendable trait of G. W. Brown's character 
may be expressed in the unexpected praise of an old lady for 
the devil, when she said all might well imitate his example of 
perseverance if we avoided his evil course. 

THE DEVOTEDNESS OF MRS. BROWN. 

[Herald of Freedom, June 20, 1857.] — The Free-State press of Kansas 
was silenced, and for months only an occasional number of the Kansas 
Tribune was seen. Through the prayers and contributions of the noble 
North, and the devotedness of Mrs. Brown to the cause, on the first of 
November, 1856, the Herald of Freedom again made its appearance. 

The devotedness of Mrs. Brown! Thereby hangs a tale. 
When Brown's press was destroyed in 1856, his wife traveled 
all over the North, telling of the outrages of the border ruffians 
and the trials of the Free-State people. She met with a noble 
and generous response. Through her efforts G. W. Brown soon 
boasted of 8000 subscribers to the Herald of Freedom, Not 
long after she returned she found herself supplanted in the 
affections of her husband by a clerk — a lady who worked in the 
Herald of Freedom office. The first great social scandal of 
Lawrence followed. Mrs. Brown secured some very compromis- 
ing correspondence, and exhibited it freely. Several people 
now have copies of it, made at that time. The result was that 
the wife was kicked out and the lady clerk made the wife. 
Relatives of the discarded wife live yet in Topeka, and to them 
it would be like opening an old wound to give all the details of 
this scandal, and I refrain. G. W. Brown has always held Lane 
up to public scorn for alleged wrong-doing with women. 

It is much to be regretted that the fair history of Kansas 
must be mixed up with these old private scandals. But G. W. 



79 

Brown and Charles Eobinson have assailed every Free-State 
man possible on these very lines. To what depths of depravity 
would they have the glorious history of Kansas reduced ! 

UNGOVERNABLE TEMPER. 

[Latorence Republican, Oct. 1, 1857.] — Tlie insinuation of Brown is, that 
the people of Lawrence have been held in check by the troops, and that upon 
their removal the occasion was seized by some of our citizens to play th« 
part of incendiaries. This insinuation is as absurd as it is vicious and 
malignant. We presume that the removal of the troops had no more to do 
with the firing of a house in Franklin, than with G. W. Broton's attempt 
to shoot a young man in this city, after the troops had left it. . . . 
Would it not be as modest for a man, whose ungovernable passions lead 
him to attempt the lives of his fellow-men, to first check his own " excesses *' 
before he attempts to implicate honest and innocent men in high crimes? 

BROWN'S SYSTEM OF MORALITY. 

[Kansas Free State, Oct. 22, 1855.] — Mr. Elliott, our partner, on on« 
occasion inquired of IVIr. Brown what kind of morality he considered there 
was in his publishing so many things about us, that he knew to be false. 
Mr. Brown replied that he considered in this difficulty between us, the end 
justified the means, and that, therefore, he had a right to use those instru- 
ments that would most effectually accomplish the end desired, and conse- 
quently, was entitled to publish anything that would most effectually injur« 
us, no matter whether it be true or false. 

"YOU LIE!" 

[Lawrence Republican, May 27, 1858.] — "You lie!" is the quick re- 
sponse to any assertion that displeases the young and vicious tyro whose only 
moral lessons are gathered from profane idlers who throng the streets. 
*' You lie ! " is the ready response that, true to his education and instincts, 
the overgrown boy Brown makes to our assertion that he furnished th« 
statement as published in the New York Herald, that the circulation of 
his paper was nearly six thousand when it was less than two thousand. 
How the vicious practices of youth do follow weak minds, " e'en to the de- 
cline of age! " We got our information as published last week, from the 



80 

correspondent himself. But this is nothing to denying one's editorials be- 
fore they are four weeks old. Bad habit that, Brown. Can't you get rid 
of it? 

ABUSE OF COL. PHILLIPS. 

[Lawrence Republican, Jan. 28, 1857.] — But the most grossly indecent 
and inhuman portion of the Herald of Freedom's attack is its contemptuous 
allusion to which it terms the " downcast look — reminding the observer of 
a whipped puppy," as Mr. Phillips passes along the streets. It is quite 
probable that Mr. Phillips does look a little less cheerful than usual, for he 
has recently sustained a sad bereavement in the loss of an only daughter; 
but we had hardly supposed there was barbarity enough in any human being 
to thus gloat over the afflictions of another. Alas! we have fallen upon evil 
times, when the common instincts and sympathies of humanity are lost in 
the tumult of depraved passions. 

ESTIMATE BY ONE WHO KNEW HIM. 

[Free State, April 7, 1855.] — He is one of those very strange persons who 
cannot tell the truth. It is impossible for him to do so. Ask him any 
question about the Territory — about settling Kansas — about his o^vn 
prospects — and he just cannot utter a word of truth in reply. 

He is a great professional liar, and cowardly granny. He is a great 
humbug, here for the purpose of making money. 

\ G. W. BROWN'S MANHOOD. 

[Lawrence Republican, Oct. 15, 1857.] — Without a spark of manliness to 
redeem his cringing — withoiit a pulsation of dignity to relieve his debased 
humility — without a glimmer of self-respect to cheer the gloom of his 
apostasy, he stands the impersonation of a cringing sycophant, ready to kiss 
the foot that would tread upon his own and the people's necks. 

'♦ROOM! ROOM FOR THE LEPER!" 

[Lawrence Republican, Dec. 31, 1857.] — He [G. W. Brown] has been a 
bitter enemy of the Free-State party for a long time, and has stabbed it at 
every opportunity. Fed and fattened on the charity of Republicans at the 
East, he has played into the hands of their enemies continually, and can now 



81 

sit down cheek by jowl with Jno. P. Wood & Co. without a pang of com- 
punctious remorse. 

His purse is well filled; he boasts of the finest office and printing estab- 
lishment west of St. Louis. Whose charity filled his pockets, and bought 
his press, and built his office ? . . . Well, it 's the old story of the 
warmed viper, over again. It is another instance of the treachery which 
every great and good cause has, at some time, to encounter. But let him 
pass on. Let him take his rank with the sneerers at " bleeding Kansas." 
Let him hug to his breast those w^hose hands are not yet clean from innocent 
blood; let him enjoy his company, and himself, as well as he can. 

" Boom ! room for the leper I " 

HERALD OF FREEDOM AND OTHER DEMOCRATIC PAPERS. 

[Lawrence Republican, Feb. 4, 1858.] — We notice that the Herald of 
Freedom, Kansas Leader, l^ational Democrat, and other Democratic papers 
in the Territory, are characterizing the Free-State party as "Garrisonian 
Abolitionists." This is a mild and stale epithet which the border ruffians 
wore out long ago, and which the Free-State party can well afford to bear. 
The freemen of Kansas have heard the mad-dog cry of Abolitionist! Aboli- 
tionist ! until it has ceased to have any terrors whatever. So go ahead, sweet 
friends! Your invective is complimentary rather than otherwise. 

ROBINSON'S OPINION OF BROWN. 

Robinson said of G. W. Bro^vn: '^ He would crawl on his 
belly to Jerusalem to save his miserable neck.'^ (See the Webb 
Scrap Book No. 17.) 

HON. D. W. WILDER ON BROWN. 

iNTovember 30, 1879, the Lawrence Journal quoted from the 
St. Joseph Herald (at that time edited by D. W. Wilder) the 
following: "Geo. W. Brown is the same liar and mercenary 
politician that he was twenty years ago, and the Lawrence 
Journal is hardly to be excused for publishing his venom. 
Brown hates the cause and the men that he betrayed. He is not 



82 

trying to write history, but to make a rogues' gallery of the 

Kansas pioneers." 

FAT JOBS. 

[Lawrence Republican, March 11, 1858.] — The Herald of Freedom and the 
Palmetto Kansan, Frank Marshall's paper, are the only papers in Kansas 
which receive Government pap in the shape of fat jobs of advertising mail 
routes. Each of these papers, as is natural, thinks the people of Kansas- 
should submit to the Lecompton Constitution. 

BROWN FAVORS LECOMPTON. 

{Lawrence Republican, March 18, 1858.] — The proposition of the Herald 
lof Freedom] which we felt called upon to denounce was contained in the fol- 
lowing: "In the event of the admissions as aforesaid, we say that our 
policy, and our only reasonable and practical policy, is to take the govern- 
ment under the Lecompton Constitution, and through it provide for the 
adoption of a new Constitution for the State of Kansas." 

ABUSE OF KANSAS SETTLERS. 

[Kansas Free State, Feb. 7, 1855.] — We feel that justice demands that we 
should notice a highly abusive article that appeared in the Herald of Free- 
dom of the 27th ult., charging the sovereign squatters of this Territory, 
and the West generally, as being speculators, robbers, pickpockets, and 
swindlers. We were very much astonished when we read the article, to see 
that the author was so short-sighted, so ignorant of the character of the 
Western people, and so uncharitable to a class of people who have ever been 
placed in the estimation of the American people as second only to the found- 
ers of the Kepublie. He is about the first individual that we ever heard of 
being so lost to a sense of true merit as to find so much to censure in this 
highly deserving class, whom our statesmen have always taken delight to 
honor and praise. 

INSANITY OF JOHN BROWN. 

In speaking of the trial of John Brown, on page 54, G. W. 
Brown, says : " Brown's attorneys knew that the ' insanity 
dodge' had been played for all it was worth; ... so they 



i 



83 

went into court and tried the case on its merits." If this means 
anything, it alleges that John Bro^^ni desired to plead insanity 
as a defense in his trial at Charlestown, Va. It is so well 
known that the attorneys desired to plead insanity as a defense 
for the prisoner and that John Brown would not suffer such 
plea in his behalf, that the statement would seem to be made 
with full knoAvledge that it was wholly untrue. 

THE BITTER FRUITS OF UNDUE EXCITEMENT. 

[Kansas Free State, Oct. 1, 1855.] — As an instance of the foolish publi- 
eations that tend to injure the cause of freedom in Kansas, and to strike at 
the very root of its prosperity, we give the following from the Missouri Dem- 
ocrat, communicated by the editor of the Herald of Freedom of this place : 

" How long I shall be an exile I know not. Daily the clouds look more 
and more portentous. I can hear their thunders. They appear near at hand. 
The lightnings of their flash are seen along the sky! When the blow comes, 
if I fall in the fray I pray you find an arm to fill my place. Do not mind 
the sacrifice or the cost. As long as there is a dollar of means belonging to 
my estate, I pray it may be used in prosecuting this war. 

" I have written to H. J. Mason, Conneautville, Crawford county, Pa., in 
relation to my business. Should anything befall me and mine by which we 
are incapacitated for wielding the pen or keeping the Herald of Freedom 
afloat, correspond with Mr. Mason, see what can be done, and lose no time 
in pushing on the Herald. 

" I have virtually received a challenge to-day. It was so intended, but 
I profess not to understand it. After my next paper is out, I have no doubt 
I will receive one direct and open. My answer will drive the demons to 
desperation, as it will appear through the press. 

" I do not pretend to appear in the streets without two revolvers and a 
bowie-knife. Seven men set upon me the other night, and attempted to 
drive me from my position. If profane words and fists swinging in the air 
could have accomplished anything, I should have been annihilated. I stood 
with my hands in my breeches pockets and told them : * Threaten as long 
as you please, but don't strike ! ' — G. W. Brown." 

We are pained to find any Free-State man that has brass enough to 
publish such false and unfounded statements as the above. It was only 
done to keep up the excitement in the States, and to make it appear that 
Brown is a great hero. How long will the people in the States be fooled 
by such braggadocio? No one is in danger in Lawrence, and especially is 
the editor of the Herald safe. There is no cause whatever for such alarm. 



84 

Why, it would be very strange if the very few Pro-Slavery men of this 
town — not t^n in all — should hold us all at bay, to the great terror of 
the entire population. We shall take good care of Mr. Brown. No one 
shall injure him, so long as he continues to conduct the Herald. 

As to the challenge, it was only gotten up by a jovial individual, who 
was only trying how far he could play upon the unfounded fears of Mr. 
Brown; and after having his own fun out of him, he let him rest. No one 
here knows of seven men setting upon Mr. Brown. The incident he referred 
to occurred in this way. Mr. Brown's horse wandered out on the prairies, 
and some one took it up and rode it into town. !Mt. Brown intimated that 
he hfvd stolen it, and the individual, under the influence of the " ardent," 
wished to whip Brown, when there were from fifty to seventy-five of Brown's 
friends standing around. Every one in Lawrence knows these facts to be 
true. 

THE ''TWO EDITIONS" OF MR. BROWN'S NEWSPAPER. 

Under title "A first-class cock-and-bull storj/' Mr. Brown 
has mucli to saj about my charge that he issued two editions of 
the Herald of Freedom. It will be observed that he does not 
positively deny the charge. He takes refuge in the bluff of 
offering $1000 for a copy of these double editions. As the files 
of the Herald of Freedom in the library of the Kansas Histori- 
cal Society were not secured for many years after the paper 
was out of print, there is no way to verify and prove either 
the truth or falsity of the matter by such files. Mr. Brown says 
" it was the active imagination of Richard J. Hinton, or J. H. 
Shimmons, possibly the genius of the two combined, which in- 
vented this story." This is the explanation of Mr. Brown in 
relation to this matter. Colonel Hinton did not come to the 
Territory imtil 1856. I submit a few references copied from 
the Kansas Free State, published in Lawrence contemporary 
with Mr. Brown's paper in 1855. I find nothing about this 
double edition after 1855. The reader is requested to bear 
this date in mind. These extracts will serve to show what the 



4^ 

i 



85 

press of that day had to say of this matter. One of the editors 
01 the Free State, Hon. R. G. Elliott, is living now in Law- 
rence, Kansas. Mr. Brown may rave and scream " murderer ! '' 
in his frenzied attacks of rabies, but that will scarcely serve in 
this emergency. The reader can judge of the sufficiency of my 
authority. 

THREE EDITIONS. 

[Free State, April 7, 1855.]— As a further evidence of his cowardice, he 
issues three editions of his Herald, — one for the Territory, one to sell to 
Missourians and send his Southern exchanges, and the other all flaming 
with anti-slavery, to send his Eastern subscribers. The first, or Missouri 
edition, had not one word about the ticket or election — perfectly neutral 
as regards slavery, and while selling a number of these to a crowd of Mis- 
sourians, the cowards told them that he was simply a Free-State man, and 
that the editors of the Kansas Free State were the abolitionists. 

THE DOUBLE-HEADED WEATHERCOCK. 

[Kansas Free State, May 14, 1855.] — Among the many newspaper notices 
of their ingenious invention we take the following from the Pittsburg 
Gazette. We have seen the thing operate, and can certify that it works 
admirably. The thing is now on exhibition and can be seen to perform its 
feats on all favorable occasions. The curious public are invited to examine it: 

" We have had placed in our hands two copies of the Herald of Freedom, 
published at Lawrence, Kansas, dated March 31st. We have often heard of 
politicians who carry two faces, a Northern and a Southern one, but never 
before of a paper of the same date and issue intended for an Eastern and 
a Western meridian. The paper is edited by G, W. Brown, formerly of 
Conneautville, Pa.; and by its name and by its profession has been re- 
garded as one of the most daring of the sentinels now mounted upon the 
Western watchtower of Freedom. One of these, numbers denounces the 
Missourians as ' mercenaries,' and gives the details of the outrages at the 
polls with all the expletives necessary to express the honest indignation of 
a friend of free labor. This was for Eastern circulation. The other number, 
and which was for home circulation, omitted everything which would grate 
upon the ear of the fire-eaters of Missouri, and was as tame as any dough- 
face need be." 

UNNECESSARY ALARM. 

[Kansas Free State, April 7, 1855.] — It vms exceedingly amusing to see 
how very much some men were alarm^ed in this place on the day of election. 
The editor of the Herald icas concealed most of the day, until near night; 



86 

then, loaded domn with revolvers and lowies, sneaked over to the polls and 
voted after the Missourians departed. A number of others did not go to 
the polls at all. There was no danger. Those leaders of the Missourians 
would not have had a dollar's worth of property destroyed, or any person 
injured in Kansas. We passed about through the crowd of imported voters, 
with nothing but a penknife in our pocket, and were pointed out as the editor 
of the strongest Free-State paper in the Territory, yet no one threatened to 
molest us. They all treated us in a very gentlemanly manner. . . . 

Nothing is so ridiculous and contemptible as the manner in which he is 
managing the Herald. At first he, through fear, and a desire to get more 
subscribers, got up a very tame, doughfaced paper, or at least those distrib- 
uted in the Territory were such; we heard it intimated that a different 
edition was sent East. We noticed him several times, and finally he began 
to work right in the Free-State ranks, until last week he issued two or three 
editions, — one for the Missourians, containing no anti-slavery at all, the other 
for the East, rahid in its denunciations of Pro-Slavery men, and the third 
for a medium class of thinkers. Such a coward might do in Conneautville, 
Pennsylvania, but we have but little use for him in the ranks of Freedom, 
in Kansas. We have suspected these various editions of the same paper for 
some time, hut now we are convinced of their existence, as we have them on 
our table, procured, enveloped, under the pretense of wishing to send some to 
Missouri and Massachusetts. 

FIRST APRIL FOOL IN LAWRENCE. 

{Kansas Free State, April 7, 1855.] — The richest thing that ever came 
off in the way of an April fool took place here on the last Sabbath evening. 
Mr. Atwood and Mr. Boyer of the Free-State office, and Mr. Garrett, of the 
Tribune, concluded that the unnecessary fears of some of the citizens, and 
especially those of Mr. Brown, should not pass off entirely unfounded, and 
after getting together, determined " to waive the question " as to the pro- 
priety of continuing religious services in such perilous times, and " pro- 
ceed immediately to develop " the military propensities of the people of 
Lawrence. Accordingly, they proceeded, about 3 o'clock p. m., down the road 
toward Westport, about a mile, and wrote the following letter, purporting 
to come from Mr. Mendenhall, of the Friends' Mission, and gave a messenger 
a dollar to carry it, in great haste, to Mr. Brown: 

Friends' Mission, 4th Mo., 1st day, 1855. 
Friend Brown : A large party of Missourians, camping at Mill Creek 
last night, got hold of the second edition of the Herald, read it in camp, and 
immediately resolved to return to Lawrence, throw thy press into the river. 



87 

and hang thee and other prominent Free-State men. The plan is to repair 
to Hickory Point, and hang Kibbe, and perhaps Goodin and others. I do 
not know the number, but as they have sent runners to inform the delega- 
tions coming in from different parts of the Territory, it must be large — 
not less than six or seven hundred. 

In great haste, thy friend, R. Mendenhall. 

Gr. W. Brown, Lawrence. 

Mr. Brown read the letter, and highly excited, marched into a neigh- 
bor's house to give the news, and was soon seen with a bell in one hand and 
a small spy-glass in the other, ringing and looking out for Missourians. 
After the people had gathered, he commenced haranguing them to rally to 
the defense of himself, and of the towni generally. 

He perceived a species of " nice diplomacy " on the part of the Missou- 
rians — that two had called at the office late on Saturday night and bought 
two papers, and by some means got hold of the second edition of the Herald' 
— and that they would have about time to get to Mill Creek — that the 
messenger was greatly excited, and started off immediately to Hickory Point; 
and noticed a number of little things that he had said about Missourians 
that were " rather imprudent," and concluded that there was no doubt that 
the report from the enemy was all true. He then exhorted all to stand 
around him and preserve his life. 

Great excitement prevailed; the letter was read and re-read, the churches 
were dismissed, and a number started out to beat up for volunteers, and 
every male of twelve years and upwards, all who Avere able to go forth to 
war, were impressed into the service. The three typos above mentioned came 
into town shortly afterwards, very much excited at the news, immediately 
put down their names as volunteers, and shouldering their guns, were ready 
to go forth to battle. 

Every old gun, pistol and knife was called into requisition, and three 
military companies were formed and put on drill under experienced com- 
manders. The famous Dr. Robinson was commander-in-chief of the militia 
forces, and S. N. Wood (who understood the hoax), was Secretary of War. 
Brown, after getting the forces in order, contented himself in the capacity 
of private, and was seen in drill, behind a little boy, going through all the 
evolutions with all the ease and grace of a green volunteer. The sage of 
Wall Street, in company with another person, proceeded to reconnoiter the 
Wakarusa bottom. At the usual hour the old soldiers in such campaigns 
retired to rest, while others kept guard all night. The Commander-in-chief 
was enraged at the authors of the dispatch, and threatened tar and feathers ; 
but the typos rather think he won't try it. Wonder if he is not waiting 



88 

for assistance, in the matter, from the Emigrant Aid Company? Ah! men 
are very brave when there is no danger. 

WANTED EASTERN EMIGRANTS TO VOTE. 

[Kansas Free State, April 7, 1855.] — We see in the second edition of the 
Herald of Freedom of last week, quite a number of slanderous lies about our 
position at the late election which duty to ourselves demands that we should 
notice. The cowardly editor of that paper says: 

" The editors of the Free State, we regret to say, so far forgot their 
position as to oppose the nomination of the party of freedom. If they are 
what they profess to be, they will live to see the day when they will rue their 
recent position. Those who are in favor of making Kansas a free State 
cannot conscientiously support a paper which labors to produce discord 
instead of harmony. ... 

" The press should labor to make itself subserve the cause for which it 
was established. When it ceases to do it it should cease to receive the sup- 
port of those who by their patronage and pecuniary aid have been instru- 
mental in sustaining it." 

Were we certain that this coward had recovered entirely from his 
fright when he penned the above and other articles, we should be rather 
severe. But all who know how he behaved himself, can see that he was 
still laboring under a species of mental hallucination. There are other 
palliating circumstances. He is one of those very strange persons who can- 
not tell the truth. It is impossible for him to do so. Ask him any question 
about the Territory — about settling Kansas — about his own prospects — 
and he just cannot utter a word of truth in reply. 

Were it not that some might believe what he says, we should, for these 
two reasons, pass his articles unnoticed. 

He is a great professional liar, and a cowardly granny — for these two 
reasons entirely unfit for the position he occupies, as it is necessary for an 
editor in Kansas to have high regard for the truth, and a good deal of moral 
courage. We did not oppose the nomination to one-tenth the extent that 
Mr. Brown himself did. But we do not blame him, for he had not the sense 
to know that he was opposing it. We simply stated that the ticket was no 
union ticket — that it was objectionable to a great many Free-State men. 
We were merely stating facts, so that our readers in the States could see 
why the ticket did not command the entire Free-State vote. Our paper 
was issued the day before the election. We said nothing for or against it, 
because we knew that everything would be carried by the foreign vote, so 
that it was useless to drum up every person who had just come into the 
Territory, who had no right to vote, according to the instructions of the 



89 

Governor, as this only afforded the Missourians a better pretext for voting, 
and makes the election so much harder to contest. The difference between 
Mr. Brown and ourselves is simply this: He was very boisterous at the 
convention — acted the part of a dictator to the people, which turned a 
great many against the ticket — read a long extract about Missourians 
coming up to vote — told all to be of good cheer, that 300 Eastern emigrants 
were on their way, and would be on hand election day — called upon all to 
be at the polls early, so that everything might be right. A Pro-Slavery 
man who was present, when he heard tl^e 300 emigrants mentioned, said he 
could beat that 400 ; and, though near sundown, mounted his mule, and was 
in Westport the next morning by daylight. This fact and the public an- 
nouncement, a few evenings previous, that 700 were on their way to Law- 
rence, accounts for the fact that we were so entirely overpowered by Mis- 
sourians on the day of the election. 

But if the 700 and the 300 ever arrived here, we cannot tell how or 
where they voted, as there were only 225 votes cast for the ticket put in 
nomination. This shows conclusively that the fact we stated in regard to 
the ticket being objectionable to a great many of the settled Free-State 
voters is true, and, to state the truth, was all we intended to do. 

When the polls were opened, neither Brown nor any of his friends were 
seen near the ground ; but along toward night, when a large party of Eastern 
men arrived, and most of the Missourians had left, he mustered courage, in 
company with about a hundred, to get over to the polls. This is the manner 
in which he stood around to see that all was right. As a further evidence of 
his cowardice, he issues three editions of his Herald, — one for the TerHtory, 
one to sell to Missourians and send his Southern exchanges, and the other 
all flaming with anti-slavery, to send his Eastern subscribers. The first, or 
Missouri edition, had not one word about the ticket or the election — per- 
fectly neutral as regards slavery, and tvhile selling a number of 'these to a 
crowd of Missourians, the coward told them that he was simply a Free-State 
man, and that the editors of the Kansas Free State were the abolitionists. 
This does not accord very well ivith his statements in his paper that we had 
turned traitor to the cause. Several other circumstances took place which 
showed that Brown was unnecessarily afraid. 

We, on the other hand, did not encourage the Eastern emigrants to vote 
when we were outnumbered, as it only offered a pretext for Missourians to 
vote illegally. But we mingled among the Missourians, conversed freely with 
a good many, trying to form acquaintance and learn their plan of opera- 
tion, and also prevent any outbreak of violence. But for doing this 



90 

we were charged with turning over Pro-Slavery. Brown was so afraid that 
hje kept at gunshot distance from all of them. Some of them told us they 
never saw a man so frightened. They proposed getting a squad of boys with 
popguns, to guard Brown's office, with orders to fire at any man who came 
within fifty yards. 

Brown is a great hunibug, here for the purpose of making money — hence 
he in two places calls on the friends of freedom no longer to support us hut 
to suhscrihe and send on two dollars immediately for the Herald. Every 
sensible man will understand his object. 

ME. root's denial. 

Mr. Brown publislied a letter from Frank A. Root (pp. 
163-4) saying: 

" I want to say to you that I have never seen inside the cover of that 
book, [my John Brown.] I was astonished to learn what you wrote and 
said I was quoted, with Harris as giving the [same] information. I never 
gave such information to a living soul. I heard it mentioned a few times 
that such an edition had been printed, but I never knew anything of the 
kind in the few weeks I was in your employ on composition in the Herald 
of Freedom office, I gave IVIr. Connelley to understand that he never re- 
ceived any such information from me, for I never kne\Y it. He said he got 
the information from some one, but he did not know of whom." 

Mr. Bro'wn regards this as the strongest point in his book. 
I wish to call attention to some things in this most remarkable 
letter. Mr. Root says, " I want to say to you that I have never 
seen inside the covers of that book." Would it not have been 
prudent and fair for him to have then looked " inside the covers 
of that book " to see what I had said ? 

" I was astounded to learn what you wrote and said I was 
quoted with Harris as givingJ^ So Mr. Root denies what Mr. 
Brown " wrote and said/' not what I had said in my book, for 
he admits he did not '' look inside the covers." 

" ISTever gave such information to a living soul." Perhaps 



91 

not ; as it is sometliing Bro^vn " wrote and said/' I do not know 
what Mr. Koot said about it to anyone. 

" I had heard it mentioned a few times that such an edition 
had been printed." That is exactly what Mr. Koot said to me, 
and all I said in my John Brown, that he or Mr. Harris had 
told me. ' , ; i i ■ : i €l 

" But I never knew anything of the kind in the few weeks I 
was in your employ on composition in the Herald of Freedom 
office." It would seem that this is really what Mr. Brown 
"wrote and said" and what Mr. Root is denying. As I had 
never made any such claims, — had never said any such thing, — - 
and it being something Mr. Brown " wrote and said," I do not 
see that the denial has anything whatever to do with what I did 
say in the book which Mr. Root says he had "never seen in- 
side the covers of." 

" I gave Mr. Connelley to understand that he never received 
any such information from me, for I never knew it." As I 
have never said or claimed he gave any such information, this 
sentence would appear superfluous. But Mr. Root did come to 
see me about this matter, as he says. He said that Mr. Brown 
had threatened to sue him because of that statement " he wrote 
and said," and he regretted that I had used his name. Also, 
that he did not know I intended to publish what he had said to 
me. He did not show me the letter he had received, and seemed 
to have no real comprehension of the matter, but was fright- 
ened about the law-suit. He seemed afraid his wealth would 
be seized by Mr. Brown. He did not " give " me to understand 
anything. 

" He said he got the information from some one, but he did 
not know of whom." That would be an odd statement for any- 



92 ' 

one to make who had looked over the newspaper files in the 
library of the Kansas State Historical Society. At the time 
it is alleged I made this statement I had copied the charges re- 
ferred to from the Kansas Territorial press for 1855, the year 
in which such double editions are said to have been published. 
Mr. Root was not, I believe, in the Territory then, and could 
not have known personally about it. He did not say he had 
personal knowledge of this matter, nor did I say he gave me 
any such information from personal knowledge. 

I believe Mr. Root had no intention to do me any injustice. 
He was scared by Mr. Brown's threat of law-suits, and did not 
do what any prudent man should have done before making 
reply. He should have examined for himself to see what the 
allegation was, and not have denied what Mr. Brown " wrote 
and said." 

So much for Mr. Boot's letter. Mr. Harris was not written 
to, Mr. Brown informs me. He gave me precisely the same 
information I obtained from Mr. Root, — that it was common 
report that in 1855 there were sometimes two editions of the 
Herald of Freedom. And it must not be forgotten that in his 
later writings Brown tries to place these double editions in 
1857, and also to make people believe his paper was mistaken 
for the Leavenworth Herald, which is untrue in both applica- 
tions. He tried to evade responsibility for giving aid to Bu- 
chanan's administration by insisting that the article quoted was 
written by the Leavenworth Herald, but it was conclusively 
shown that he wrote it and published it in his own paper, but 
denied it four weeks later. It had no reference whatever to 
two editions of the Herald of Freedom. The article referred 
to is given herein. 



93 

PRIVATE TRIBUNALS. 

Chapter 20 of " False Claims '' is entitled " Private Tribu- 
nals of Justice N'ot Defensible/' This I suppose is to prove that 
John Brown's action on the Pottawatomie in trying, convicting 
and executing the ruffians is to be condemned, and that no exe- 
cution should take place until ordered by a public tribunal. 
But here as elsewhere, you are not certain where G. W. Brown 
will lead you. Wait a minute before you take him at his word. 
On page 156 is the following: 

" Perhaps it is well I am not a believer in capital punishment, other- 
wise there might be a tragic ending to this cock-and-bull story." 

What do you think of that from a man who cries out against 
private tribunals ? Does not that look as though G. W. Brown 
had tried me, found me guilty, and would execute me but for 
his — what? 'Not his objection to private tribunals, but his 
non-belief in capital punishment. He must have written Mr. 
Root that he, too, was in danger of death; I know he seemed 
dreadfully frightened. But the author's convictions on this 
point are as consistent as they are on any other. If there is 
any question in the heavens or in the earth or in the waters 
under the earth which he ever discussed without getting on 
both sides of it, I should like to know what it is. He is almost 
as bad as Bobinson in that respect. 

THE KISSING INCIDENT. 

" We are glad to note that Connelley gave no credit to the alleged kissing 
adventure of Old John on his way from jail to the gallows. That was denied 
by the sheriff and the jailer. The original of that scene was borrowed from 
Macaulay."— P. 127. 

" Mr. Connelley, you lost another opportunity in not detailing that in- 
cident."— P. 128, 

Yes, yes, perhaps I did. But let us see who did detail " that 



94 

incident." On page 58 of G. W. Brown's ^^ Eeminiscences of 
Old John Brown/' published in 1880, I find the following: 

" That John Brown had many traits of character which commended him 
to the admiration of the public, I am well aware. When on his way to the 
gallows he stooped and kissed a hlack child, a poor creature, doomed so far 
as the loorld then knew, to a life of toil and bondage. The incident aroused 
our tenderest sympathy." 

In studying the life of John Brown, I read the above, and 
knowing G. W. Brown's reputation as a writer, I was satisfied 
it was untrue. Investigation confirmed my first impression, 
and proved the story false. It was said in Territorial days that 
he had two ways of injuring people, one being abuse and the 
other praise. The latter was said to be by far the most effective. 
The following extract is in point on that subject: .» 

PROTEST. 

[Laiorence Republican, April 15, 1858.] — We must enter our serious pro- 
test against the underhand and unfair means to which the Herald of Free- 
dom, our Administration contemporary, is resorting, for the purpose of 
killing off Dr. Charles Robinson. It is well known that Brown hates Rob- 
inson with an utter and perfect malignity. Brown tried to use him up all 
last summer by publishing the vilest calumnies about the Doctor. He tried 
that game for months in succession, but the more he abused Robinson, the 
better the people liked Robinson. They knew there must be something pretty 
good about the man, or Brown would not traduce him so. Well, finding at 
last that he could not kill Robinson off in that way, Brown has now gone to 
praising Robinson. Forgetful, or regardless of the fact that he has left in 
the columns of his paper charges against Robinson, unretracted and unex- 
plained, which, if true, would consign him or any other man to irredeemable 
infamy, he has now fallen to beslavering Robinson with praise. This is more 
shrewd. Brown's commendation is fatal to any man in Kansas. It is like 
a snake's breath — sickening, deadly. Brown has learned this perfectly well, 
and so, with characteristic cunning, he has opened from his new masked 
battery, on his hated victim. It promises to be far more effectual than his 



95 

former mode of attack. Those who were perfectly unmoved as long as Brown 
libeled and vituperated and maligned Dr. Robinson, are startled and coa- 
founded by these puffs and laudations. They do not understand this crea- 
ture's motive. They do not know that he is doing it to make, if possible, 
his victim a stench in the nostrils of the people. 

Seeing how matters are working, and how Brown was thus poisoning 
the public mind against one of our most prominent men, we have thought 
proper to put the people upon their guard. . . . There is one argument 
that never fails with Brown. We know the money market is tight, but can't 
somebody raise a few dollars and save one of our best men from total de- 
struction ? 

G. W. BROWN AND THE EMIGRANT AID COMPANY. 

Brown complains that I said he came to Kansas in the in- 
terest of his own finances ; and he always denied vehemently 
that he came here in the interest of the Emigrant Aid Company. 

In a prospectus of that company, printed in Boston by Alfred 
Mudge & Son, in 1854, setting ont the " Plans and Operations 
of the Emigrant Aid Company," appears the following: 

"At tlie same time, it is desirable that a printing-press he sent out and a 
weekly newspaper established. This would be the organ of the Company's 
agents." 

Also, the following: 

EMIGRANT AID COMPANY. " HERALD OF FREEDOM." 

It was early announced that the Emigrant Aid Company would take the 
necessary steps for the introduction of the press, and the publication of a 
paper within the Territory. The Secretary is now enabled to announce that 
suitable arrangements have been made with G. W. Brown, late proprietor 
of the Courier, published at Conneautville, Pa., and that on or about the 
first of October next he will commence " at the seat of government of Kansas 
Territory, an independent weekly newspaper, devoted to the development of 
the resources of the Great West, and particularly to the interests of Kansas 
Valley," Every advantage which capital and talent combined can give 
a paper of this description, will be thrown around it. 

Those desirous of subscribing can send their names, direction, and the 



96 

amount of their subscription, to Thomas H. Webb, Secretary of the Emigrant 
Aid Society, Boston, Mass. Agents desirous of canvassing any particular 
State, or a portion of a State, will apply as above for all necessary informa- 
tion. 

There is much additional evidence along this line in the 

early publications, though it would seem this is sufficient to 

settle the matter. One additional extract is given : 

[Kansas Free State, March 10, 1855.] — "Mr. Brown, on the other hand, 
put himself up to the highest bidder, and the Aid Company bid him off." 

OFFICE-HOLDING. 

G. W. Brown says he and his friends did not desire the offices 
in Kansas. Let us see. Robinson was Free-State Governor 
from the first, then Governor of the State one term, though 
repudiated when his term was but half completed, and defeated 
at the polls for reelection. After that he was a standing can- 
didate for thirty years, and in every party and faction in the 
State, in search of office. S. C. Pomeroy held office until his 
own corruption defeated him. Perhaps the following will ex- 
plain why Brown did not want office : 

[Free State, May 28, 1855.] — At the special election called by Reeder 
to fill vacancies in the Legislature, G. W. Brown was a candidate. Out of 
925 votes cast in his district he received sixteen only, — sixteen ! 

Eli Thayer was also a candidate until defeated for Congress 
on a ticket opposed to President Lincoln. Thayer and Robin- 
son were both opposed to Lincoln. 

G. W. BROWN'S OPINION OF JOHN BROWN IN 1857. 

G. W. Brown has alwavs insisted, since he bes^an to write for 
Charles Robinson, that John Brown was never a citizen of 
Kansas ; that he came only to fight ; that he did not desire to 



97 

save Kansas to freedom, but to involve the country in war; 
that the Browns had no blooded stock in Kansas; that John 
Brown never had a home in Kansas (he is particularly excitable 
and rabid on this point) ; that Brown and his sons were forced 
to leave Kansas because of the sentiment against them because 
of the killing on the Pottawatomie ; and that no sense of duty 
ever actuated John Brown. 

All these later defamations are refuted by G. W. Brown him- 
self. Almost a year after the killing on the Pottawatomie (and 
it was always knowm who did that killing), G. W. Brown vis- 
ited the Pottawatomie country and wrote the following, which 
appeared in his Herald of Freedom February 7, 1857. Ko 
biographer of John Brown has ever claimed more for him than 
G. W. Brown voluntarily conceded. Please remember that 
G. W. Brown wrote this himself, after he had gone over the 
ground and seen for himself that the things he wrote about were 
true ; there w^as no hearsay. Bro'wn made an examination, and 
published the result of it. 

EDITORIAL JOTTINGS. 

Pottawatomie Creek, Jan. 17th. — In passing south, before coming to- 
Pottawatomie Creek, we passed the ruins of several Free-State houses; 
amongst them the distinguished Capt. John Brown's and his son's, John 
Brown, jr., and Jason Brown. These were all intelligent and enterprising 
men, and came to Kansas to build up homes for themselves, improve the 
country and save it to freedom. 

Old Capt. Brown has been a man of distinction in the East. He was of 
the firm of Perkins & Brown, in Ohio, who took the premium at the World's 
Fair in London, and also in New York, on the finest and best wool. They 
were known throughout the country as importers of the best Spanish, 
French, and Saxony sheep. 

Capt. Brown traveled over Europe, and examined the various woolen 
manufactories, for the purpose of benefiting the wool-growers and manu- 
facturers in America. In other branches of agriculture he also took leading 



98 

premiums. His sons brought with them to Kansas imported stock of Devon- 
shire and Durham cattle. 

One of them had established here a fine vineyard, and had in thrifty- 
growth fine varieties of grapes. He also had a nursery of the most choice 
variety of fruits. 

These were not the men to be intimidated or subdued; of course they 
must be destroyed. 

John Brown, jr., was arrested by the U. S. dragoons, for treason, for 
offering to defend the town of Lawrence on the 21st of May last, and was 
marched in chains, with several others, for thirty miles, in one of the hottest 
days in June, without food or water. He was then confined in the U. S. 
camp for nearly four months without even an indictment against him. 

Jason Brown was also arrested, but was afterwards set free. 

When the ruffians thought the country was sufficiently safe, by the arrest 
or expulsion of the Free-State men by the United States forces, they came 
in great numbers, and overran the country. They burned the houses of 
the Free-State settlers, among other outrages. 

Frederic Brown, a younger brother of John and Jason Brown, was shot 
in cold blood on the highway by the Rev. Martin White, who was acting as 
an advance guard to the main army, who were advancing stealthily to the 
destruction of Osawatomie. 

Noble-minded and generous men have ever been the mark of tyrants; and 
so here: this family of Browns, the most patriotic and enterprising of men, 
have been expelled from Kansas by the U. S. Government, set on by the 
brutality of Pro-Slavery officials. 

John Brown, sr., is a little past middle age, slightly gray, puritanic in 
his religion and habits, and whatever he does he does conscientiously, from 
a sense of duty, and, as he expresses it, from the fear and love of God. 
He is mild and gentle in his manners, and fearless and uncompromising in 
the discharge of his duty. In losing these men, Kansas loses her most enter- 
prising citizens, and morality her most devoted advocates. 

HON. HARRIS STRATTON IN REPLY TO G. W. BROWN. 

[Lawrence Republican, Feb. 18, 1858.] — Editors of the Repuhlican: My 
attention has been called to a most bitter and ungentlemanly assault upon 
me, in an editorial in the Herald of Freedom of the 13th inst. In accord- 
ance with his usual custom, the editor of the Herald stoops from the position 
of a fair and impartial recorder of events, for the purpose of venting his 



99 

spleen in personal abuse and misrepresentation. . . . Should such a 
state of affairs exist [civil war] I fear our patriotic editor would again seek 
safety in flight from the very troubles he had been instrumental in stirring 
up, and finding when danger threatened that his courage was oozing out at 
the ends of his fingers, quietly allow one of McGhee's negro slaves* to arrest 
and deliver him over to the tender care of his enemies, without ever at- 
tempting to use in self-defense one of the six revolvers that he at a certain 
time had in his pockets. It is singular that brave ( ? ) men — men of great 
physical strength, like the editor of the Herald for instance, should, when 
danger thickens around them, have such urgent business in the States, and 
show so much anxiety to secure a large supply of " material aid " and that 
that " aid," like the six revolvers, when once in the pocket, would not come 
forth. 

I have no partiality for a political life; but I have too much pride to 
quietly submit to insults, even from an editor, or for a moment to turn my 
eyes *towards the " secret fund " which the present administration so freely 
uses in Kansas. 

FOUR DOLLARS A LINE. 

[Laiorence Republican, March 11, 1858. ] — What the advertising op 

THE MAIL EOUTES IN THE HERALD OF FREEDOM COSTS THE ADMINISTRATION, 
AND VS^HAT KIND OF SERVICE THE HERALD RENDERS IN RETURN. 

That Mr. Buchanan understands how to make " judicious use of Gov- 
ernment patronage, not only in Washington but also in Kansas, to secure 
the passage of Lecompton [Constitution], will appear quite evident from the 
following Washington telegram. This undoubtedly explains the " new 
policy " of submission to the Lecompton Constitution which the Herald 

* [ G. W. Brown objects to my saying he was captured by a negro slave. There are many 
authorities to be found supporting that theory of the matter. Mr. Brown has left us different 
accounts of his capture, as follows : 

"Nov, 14, 1857.— I had been a week in custody ; had been kidnapped in Missouri." 

"Jan. 10, 1857. — The story that we were arrested by a negro was set In circulation by 
Brewerton and Henry Clay Pate." 

"Feb. 11, 1857.— G. W. Brown and Gains Jenkins were taken [in the spring of 1856] from 
the American Hotel in Kansas City by a mob, and conveyed to Lecompton." 

"Feb. 20, 1858.— On the morning of the 14th of May we left the hotel in Kansas City, with 
Col. Jenkins, of this city, for Lawrence. While on the highway towards Lawrence, and only a 
mile out from Kansas City, we were stopped by Col. McGhee, and two others, who were armed 
with muskets, and taken to McGhee's house." 

The above quotations are from the Herald of Freedom on dates indicated. They are 
Brown's different versions of his capture ; all tell a different tale. The true story of his cap 
ture, so far as anything he himself has said, remains as great a mystery as is the identity of the 
man who struck Billy Patterson. — W. E. C] 

LefC. 



100 

has entered upon, and will be the animus of the future efforts in that 

direction. 

Washington, Feb. 24. — The Union this morning copies from the Kansas 
Herald of Freedom an article denouncing the N. Y. Tribune, indorsing Gen. 
Calhoun and prophesying peace, even if Lecompton be passed. This article 
cost the Government about $4 per line, or just $231, the price paid for 
advertising mail routes in the paper. 



"NAILED FAST." 

[Laiorence Republican, March 18, 1858.] — Some duties are unpleasant. 
It is not always agreeable to show falsehood and deception and treachery in 
their true colors. It is not always pleasant even to allow a man to demon- 
strate himself a deliberate falsifier. Such an exhibition shocks the moral 
sense, and shakes one's faith in humanity. But unpleasant duties are not 
the less duties, and must be performed. 

Some weeks ago, the Herald of Freedom, shortly after James Buchanan 
had bestowed upon it a fat job in the shape of mail-route advertising, con- 
tained a leading editorial article, making a savage onslaught upon the "New 
York Tribune, and presses of that character," charging them with being 
" croakers," with having injured the material prosperity of the Territory, and 
with tending to make Kansas a slave State. Confidence was also expressed in 
Calhoun, that he would " not issue certificates of election to the Pro-Slavery 
candidates," etc., etc. 

Of course such a precious crumb of comfort for the Administration, — 
such a prompt return on the capital the President had invested in a Kansas 
newspaper, — such an efficient weapon to use against the Free-State men, and 
in favor of Lecompton, would not and did not escape the notice of the Ad- 
ministration. It immediately transferred the article, except one or two 
closing paragraphs, which in no degree modified or altered its character, 
to the columns of its own organ, the Washington Union, giving the Herald 
of Freedom due credit therefor. Upon the appearance of the article as 
copied into the Union, the Washington correspondent of the New York 
Tribune telegraphed the fact to that paper, giving also the price paid for 
the article by the Administration — some four dollars a line. The Tribune 
published the dispatch from its correspondent, and, in the same issue, 
republished the Herald of Freedom's article, from the Union, precisely as 
it originally appeared in the Herald of Freedom of February 13th, italics, 
errors and all. 

In the last issue of the Herald of Freedom, its editor thus deals with 



101 

this matter. We give his article entire, and ask the careful attention of 
our readers to it. We have italicized some of its more notable points: 

The Fools not all Dead. — The Washington Union has been copying 
some articles from the Leavenworth Herald, indorsing the Leconipton Con- 
stitution, and urging its passage through Congress, as the quickest way 
of settling the Kansas imbroglio, and crediting it to the Herald of Freedom. 
Greeley, ttnth his characteristic desire to strike a hlow at the Herald of 
Freedom, published the article from the Union, and allows his Washington 
correspondent to " pitch in " to the H. of F. for its Pro-Slavery influence. 
We exchange with the New York Tribune, and that journal has access to 
our columns every week, but instead of extracting directly from us, from 
which there would be no error, it copies the falsehoods or forgeries, more 
properly of the Union, and ascribes it to us. Whether Mr. G. designs to be 
an honest journalist we do not know, but we again protest against the vile 
means which it is resorting to, to injure our circulation and influence. 
Though an humble individual, our reputation is as dear to us as it is to 
other men, and the damnable falsehoods iterated and reiterated so often to 
our injury, are worthy only of perjurers and villains of the lowest grade. 

We ask the Tribune to make the correction, else to admit that it has 
no desire to publish the truth so its position can be understood. 

That we have come to be sensitive in the matter, we will state a sub- 
scriber in New York, after reading the article in the N. Y. Tribune, wrote 
us immediately that he did not want the Herald of Freedom any longer, 
as he could get Pro-Slavery papers nearer home. All we can say of such a 
subscriber, is, that he was a fool, or he loould never believe, for a moment, 
such a report, having the paper before him from which he could make the 
correction in a moment. We are truly glad this fellow has left us, as his 
name was a disgrace to our books, and calculated to bring reproach on the 
other names on our books. 

The intelligent reader will notice that in this article Broion makes the 
following charges, viz. : That the Washington Union has copied " some ar- 
ticles from the Leavenworth Herald" and credited "it" (the grammar is 
Brown's — not ours ) to the Herald of Freedom, and that Mr. Greeley, " with 
his characteristic desire to strike a blow at the Herald of Freedom," has 
copied the same article from the Union, and allowed his correspondent to 
" pitch in to the H. of F. for its pro-slavery influence," when from con- 
sulting the Herald of Freedom, which is in exchange with the Tribune, Mr. 
Greeley might have known that the article which he had copied from the 
Union was a " falsehood " or " forgery " " more properly " of the Union, and 
not an original article in the Herald of Freedom! 

We hardly know what to think of these statements — or the man who 
makes them. Has he forgotten his own editorials? Or did he not exam- 
ine the Tribune to see what the article which it copied was? Does he sup- 
pose he can write and print Administration articles and then shirk the 



102 

paternity of them in this way? Did he suppose that no one would take the 
pains to examine a file of the Herald of Freedom and identify the article 
which the Union and Tribune each quoted? It is hard to suppose that a 
man would coolly sit down to pen a deliberate falsification. And yet, here 
is an article which the Herald of Freedom published no longer ago than the 
13th of last February, as a prominent and leading editorial, and which the 
Washington Union and New York Tribune have each correctly copied and 
credited, but which Mr. Brown now disowns, ascribing it in one paragraph 
to the Leavenworth Herald and in another calling it a " forgery " of the 
Washington Union, and grossly maligns Mr. Greeley because said article 
was copied into the Tribune, and correctly credited to the Herald of Freedom! 
What shall we make of this fellow? The most charitable comment that can 
be made is to use his own language and say that " the fools are not all dead." 

The audacity of his attempted deception is only equalled by its shallow- 
ness. He will next deny that there is any such paper as the Herald of 
Freedom, at all. 

Does Mr, Brown suppose that he is going to carry on this game of 
double-dealing any longer, and not be exposed? How gratuitous and shame- 
ful his abuse of Mr. Greeley, one of the truest and noblest friends that free 
Kansas ever had. And then the audacity of the thing; — the man abso- 
lutely denies his own article published less than six weeks ago, charges the 
Union with " falsehood and forgery " for copying it, the Tribune with a 
" characteristic desire to strike a blow " in recopying it, and calls one of 
his own subscribers " fool " for coming to the natural and sensible conclu- 
sion that he "could get Pro-Slavery papers nearer home"i 

We have said enough. Such an exposure is sad, — is sickening. It re- 
veals a depth and completeness of depravity not often exhibited. 

If any reader is anxious to see the article which was copied from the 
Herald of Freedom into the Union, and from that into the Tribune, he can 
find it in the issue of the Herald of Freedom for Feb. 13, 1858. It is the 
first article in the second column of the second page, and bears the title of 
"Croakers Again." The whole article was quoted — verbatim et literatim 
et italicatim et erroratim — down to the paragraph near the close, commenc- 
ing, " There is no cause for croaking." We would give the article, but we 
can't lumber our columns with it. 

Note the above. 

Some day, if life is spared me, I may show how the " press corre- 
spondents " falsely represented that I published two editions of the Herald 
of Freedom, one for the Northern market, and one for the Southern; then 



103 

as an illustration of the two issues copied a strong Free-State editorial from 
the columns, and quoted an article I had copied from the Leavenworth 
Herald, a violent Pro-Slavery paper, as showing the animus of the Slave- 
State press. This was made to appear as a leading editorial in the Southern 
edition of the Herald of Freedom. — G. W. Brown, in Laiorence Daily 
Journal, Jan. 11, 1902. 

The article to which the above is made a note is the only one 
I have been able to find in the press of that time in which 
Brown tries to evade responsibility by pretending that the 
Leavenworth Herald is quoted and the matter credited to the 
Herald of Freedom. It has no reference whatever to the two 
editions of the Herald of Freedom. But on page 156, " False 
Claims," it is so asserted. The reader must draw his own 
conclusions as to the fairness, honesty, and credibility of a man 
who so deliberately attempts to deceive. 

WORKING FOR GLORY— AND PAY. 

[Lawrence Repuhlican, March 25, 1858.] — The Herald of Freedom of 
July 1st, 1855 — at a time, it will be remembered, when its editor was work- 
ing for glory, according to his subsequent acknowledgment — in referring 
to the renegades of the North, who sacrificed everything — honor, manliness, 
and all the virtues which good men possess — that they might gain position 
with slaveholders, says: 

" We look upon no set of men with such detestation, loathing and dis- 
gust, as upon those panderers to power which they have frequently wit- 
nessed in the North, but which has been exhibited to a far greater extent 
in Kansas than elsewhere." 

With the same kind of vision at the present time, with what degree of 
" detestation, loathing and disgust " must this " independent " editor regard 
his immaculate self; for when, either in Kansas or elsewhere, has there 
been exhibited a more abject " pandering to power " than has been exhibited 
in Kansas by the editor of the Herald of Freedom, since he so publicly, em- 
phatically and unreservedly renounced " working for glory " in favor of his 
present policy of " working for pay " ? 

When our friend Jones, of the Ottawa Nation, was recently in Washing- 
ton, the Postmaster-General, in speaking of advertising the mail routes, 



104 

declared that he would not think of bestowing public patronage upon any 
papers but those which supported the Administration, and remarked that he 
would be extremely foolish to use it to cut their own throats with. Instead 
of consulting with our Delegate, Mr. Parrott, he called in Senator Green, of 
Missouri, who, knowing that Brown worked for pay — that for pay he 
would do, as he has done in the past, more for the Administration than an 
avowedly Pro-Slavery or Democratic publisher could do — that for pay he 
would use his influence covertly and intriguingly to bring the people of 
Kansas, step by step, to the position of accepting the Lecompton Constitu- 
tion, organizing a State Government under it, and finally to acquiesce in its 
full and complete operation over them; and knoiving that for pay he was 
ready to do any favors of like nature that the Administration might require 
at his hands, selected the Herald of Freedom, as the best investiture to the 
Administration, of the mail-route advertising in Kansas. 

Here is the agreement: The disbursers of public patronage declare they 
will not give the advertising to those who do not sustain the Administra- 
tion. Brown gets the advertising — therefore the deduction is that the 
Administration is satisfied with Brown's " work for pay " in its behalf. 

The following, from the Washington State, a Pro-Slavery paper that 
sustains Douglas and his colleagues in their opposition to the Lecompton 
swindle, shows how the matter is regarded in that quarter: 

The " Herald of Freedom " and the " Union." — The Union repub- 
lishes an article from the Herald of Freedom, the leading Free-State paper 
in Kansas, and remarks that it will be seen that the Herald is getting tired 
of such " croaking " papers as the New York Tribune and other ancient 
allies of Abolition. We put the article in print, says the Union, just to 
cast over the " happy family " of " Republicans " a single shadow to relieve 
the otherwise too brilliant features of that delectable household. 

The Union has recently become quite a sympathizer with the Herald of 
Freedom, and no doubt the latter is getting tired of its old allies — it is 
more advantageous to be an ally of the Union. The Herald and the Union 
both publish the advertisements of the Postoffice Department, and there is 
no reason, under such circumstances, why they should not now pull together 
in the same traces. Heretofore there has been but a slight difference in the 
positions of the Union and the Herald on the Kansas question. 

The Herald now rather gives in to the Union, but whether an entire con- 
version to the Union's doctrine has been brought about by the Union's argu- 
ments, or the Postoffice Department advertisements, we are not informed. 

HOW HE OBTAINED SUBSCRIBERS. 

[Lawrence Republican, April 1, 1858.] — "Six hundred new subscriptions 
were received during our absence. Names of the best and most prominent 



105 

men in the Territory are among the number. These have all been obtained 
by the efforts of a single individual, except so far as persons in various locali- 
ties have been prompted by the interest they felt in sustaining the Herald, 
to assist in securing names. We are not at liberty to mention the name of 
the person who handed in this new list." 

Thus begins the leading editorial of the Herald of last week. The most 
important idea is that of receiving six hundred new subscribers within the 
short space of a two-weeks trip to " the Neosho and Cottonwood," and to the 
uninitiated would under ordinary circumstances bespeak most unbounded 
prosperity and popularity on the part of our neighbor since he has become 
the recipient of Administration favors. Lest some should attribute this 
windfall to the Herald's prestige as the leading Administration organ in 
Kansas, we will say a few words by way of explanation. About two months 
since, the nervous system of the editor of the Herald became very much 
shattered, to such a lamentable degree, indeed, that he advertised editorially 
his establishment for sale. Written propositions were submitted to Messrs. 
Ross, of Topeka, who upon consideration accepted them in full. In the mean- 
time, some old-time political doctors examined the nervous system of the 
Herald establishment, and determined that rather than lose their only organ, 
they would undertake the task of restoring to it sufficient vigor to keep it 
running. The lifeblocd of the concern — that circulative medium generally 
called money — was at its lowest ebb, and a grand council of prominent phy- 
sicians being held, it was determined that the case, though extremely doubt- 
ful, was not entirely hopeless, and that a last desperate effort should be 
made for its recovery. Government pap was offered in allopathic doses, by 
way of nourishment, and the effect was gratifying. One of their number, the 
single indimdual referred to, was delegated to travel the Territory and 
solicit substantial nourishment from political friends. The shattered remains 
of the editor were assured in this way that the electric chink of some hun- 
dreds or thousands of little electric coins would restore them to wholeness 
and soundness. In payment for this cure, when effected, those contributors 
to said editor's relief, who exacted it, were to receive a compensation in the 
Herald of Freedom at the regular rates. In this way six hundred copies 
were exacted — " six hundred new subscriptions " were received. 

The recovered Herald man need not have felt any delicacy about men- 
tioning the name of this single indimdual. It is generally known through 
our community and through Kansas. We have heard of him in different 
parts of the Territory, soliciting contributions of political friends, on political 
grounds, for several weeks past. The political doctors " had agreed to find 
one hundred persons who would contribute ten dollars each " he would sav, 



106 

then produce the list, adding " that a number of prominent men had sub- 
scribed who did not wish their names to appear." 

There is nothing like having zealous and active political or religious 
friends and supporters. The Herald of Freedom, a few months ago boast- 
ing " nearly eight thousand subscribers," was on its last legs. It was being 
published at a loss, and its friends had either to make it pay, or it was to 
wind up. Notwithstanding the extreme hardness of the times, about one 
thousand dollars have been raised for its relief. 



JAMES BLOOD. 

I am taken to task for the criticism I make of the letter of 
one James Bloody who wrote to fit the case when he and others 
were heaping abuse on John Brown. I quote the letter and my 
comments as published in my John Brown, and request the 
reader to draw his own conclusion as to the reliability of Blood 
as a witness. Col. Blood says: 

" In the spring of 1856 I went East on business, leaving my family in 
Lawrence. I w^as in New Hampshire, when I learned that the border rufl&ans 
were gathering, under ruffianly Federal officers, to destroy Lawrence. I im- 
mediately started home, arriving at Kansas City, I think on the 21st of May, 
1856. I could find no way of getting to Lawrence, direct, but hired a closed 
hack to take me, with two or three friends (one of them was J. F. Bliss, now 
residing at Oskaloosa), to Osawatomie. We instructed the driver to say to 
anyone who might halt us, that he was taking some men to Pleasant Hill, 
Missouri. We drove south through Westport, and the parties halting us 
appeared to be satisfied with the reply of the driver. We stayed that night 
at a farm-house in Missouri, a short distance south of Westport. The next 
day, the 22d, we took dinner with Baptiste Peoria, where Paola now stands, 
and arrived at Osawatomie in the afternoon. ... It was nearly sun- 
down that afternoon when, between Pottawatomie creek and Middle creek, 
and but a few miles from the Doyle settlement, I saw a party of men coming 
from the west and going tow^ards Pottawatomie creek. As we approached 
each othei I could see the gleam of the sun's rays reflected from the moving 
gun-barrels of the party in the wagon. When within perhaps 100 yards 
they stopped, and a man rose up in the wagon and cried 'Halt! ' I imme- 
diately recognized old John Brown, and stated who I was, calling him by 
name. I was then allowed to approach the party. There were in the wagon 



107 

John Brown and, to the best of my recollection, four of his sons, his son-in- 
law, and a man driving the team whom I did not know, making seven in the 
wagon. There was also a man on horseback; I think his name was Wymer, 
or Winer. 

" The party appeared to be fully armed with rifles, revolvers, knives, or 
swords. I think some of them at least had a peculiar instrument, some- 
thing like a Scotch claymore, or a short, very heavy broadsword. John 
Brown had presented me with one of the same kind, while at Lawrence, 
during the Wakarusa war, in the fall of 1855. 

" I talked with the old man for some time. I believe he was the only one 
of the party who spoke. He stated they had left Captain John Brown, jr., 
with the Pottawatomie company, in camp near Palmyra. He informed me 
that La^vrence had been sacked and burned, and that a number of leading 
Free-State men had been taken prisoners. He seemed very indignant that 
there had been no resistance; that Lawrence was not defended; and de- 
nounced the members of the committee and leading Free-State men a» 
cowards, or worse. His manner was wild and frenzied, and the whole party 
watched with excited eagerness every word and motion of the old man. 
Finally, as I left them, he requested me not to mention the fact that I 
had met them, as they were on a secret expedition, and did not want anyone 
to know that they were in that neighborhood. . . . 

" I sincerely believed that it was the work of insane men. Their halt- 
ing at that distance a solitary traveler, who was apparently unarmed, and 
upon the open prairie where they could see for miles around, seemed to me 
evidence of insanity. Certainly that number of so well-armed men could not 
fear an assault and capture, or that they were in any immediate danger. 
I noticed that while we were in conversation the boys watched every look 
and gesture of the old man — keeping their guns in their hands ready for 
instant action." 

Strange statements ! ]^o one else has left any statement 
of John Brown's becoming ^^ frenzied." Colonel Washington 
told Governor Wise that Brown was the coolest man he ever 
saw under fire. He may have had good cause to denounce the 
committee, for it is recorded that the men who had gathered at 
Lawrence to defend the town left in disgust when the committee 
announced that no resistance was to be made. (See twentieth 
chapter of The Conquest of Kansas, by Phillips.) If there is 



108 

any reliance at all to be placed in this letter, it convicts Towns- 
ley of lying. Blood says that Brown announced to him that 
they were on a secret expedition. Townsley says that he did 
not know the nature of the expedition, whether it was secret or 
not, until Brown made it known to him in camp that night. 
The letter contains what was known at the time of writing to 
be a very erroneous statement. It says that John Brown's son, 
John Brown, jr., became insane, when, on the afternoon of the 
2Jf.th, ^^news was received of the massacre,'' and that he "was 
taken home the next day a maniac." It says, " We heard of the 
massacre of the Doyles, Wilkinson, and Sherman, on the Potta- 
watomie, on the night of the 2Sd.^^ The killing was in fact 
done on the night of the 24th, after John Brown, jr., was made 
insane from hearing it! Upon such contradictory and unre- 
liable, not to say flimsy and untrustworthy, productions is the ^ 
defamation of John Brown based. Colonel Blood may have met 
this party as he says, but his letter bears many evidences of 
having been written to incorporate and set out the theories of 
the people engaged at that time in a bitter attack upon Brown. 
Colonel Blood's statement concerning the action of the men 
in keeping their guns ready for instant action would indicate 
that he frightened the party ! !N^o other Kansan ever saw Brown 
scared. To Colonel Blood belongs the honor of being the only 
man who ever frightened John Brown! And Colonel Blood 
had slipped down through Missouri pretending to be on his way 
to Pleasant Hill, and was now making his way into Lawrence 
by the back door for fear of meeting Missourians, and John 
Brown had seven armed men with him. Truly, the brave Colo- 
nel must have presented the very personification of courage and 
daring on his fleet steed as he skimmed over the prairies north 
of the Pottawatomie! 



109 



THE NEW ENGLAND EMIGRANT AID CO. 



In the " False Claims " I am soundly berated for not worship- 
ing the Emigrant Aid Company. That Company was a per- 
fectly legitimate enterprise, and accomplished some good indi- 
rectly for the cause of freedom in Kansas, — as much as could 
be expected. It was organized for speculative purposes. Mak- 
ing Kansas a free State was incidental in its design, and was 
an issue used principally to induce people to subscribe for stock 
and contribute money. Large dividends for the stockholders 
constituted the main purpose. It never paid the fare of a single 
emigrant to Kansas, it is claimed. 

'No one can object to the purposes of the company. But I 
believe the presence in Kansas of emigrant aid companies, 
whether from ISTorth or South, was often the cause of trouble in 
Territorial days. The chief objection to the Emigrant Aid Com- 
pany is not to what it accomplished, but the claims now made 
for it by Thayer and others, w^ho, in their writings on the sub* 
ject, insist it was a purely benevolent and philanthropic institu- 
tion, with the freedom of Kansas as its sole aim. I object to the 
false colors hoisted over the hulk of the institution in later days. 
Without hesitation and as plainly as I could write it, I gave 
credit to this Aid Company, and to Eli Thayer, for whatever of 
good they accomplished here. Perhaps future historians will 
cut down the generous estimate I have allowed them. History- 
writing in Kansas was, in the beginning, largely biographical 
and personal; it is too much so now. And the victor always 



110 

writes the history of the country in which he prevails. So far, 
the vanquished have not been heard; but they must be heard 
before a fair and impartial general history of the State can be 
written. 

In an article on the Big Springs Convention, written by Hon. 
E. G. Elliott, read before the meeting of the " 56-ers'' in Law- 
rence, September 13, and published in the Lawrence Weekly 
Journal, September 27, October 4, and October 11, 1902, is 
the best statement of order of events in the development of 
Kansas history I have seen. I quote from that paper : 

The order of statehood development was: 

1. Natural inflow of migration. 

2. Organization of the political forces at Big Springs. 

3. Adjusting themselves to changed conditions at Grasshopper Falls. 

4. Assumption of legislative authority at the October election of 1857. 

5. Perfecting its development in the Wyandotte convention. 
Other movements were experimental, subsidiary. 

The prevailing theory, however, that upon which Kansas history has 
been written, is: 

Organized repudiation of the Territorial Government. 

Organization of an experimental independent State Government. 

The blending of the Topeka State Government through the agency of its 
executive, with the reformed Territorial organization. 

The anti-slavery element was the deposit of a steady flow of population 
that was annually bearing westward on its tide the material for the peopling 
of a State. From the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri, 
the hives of pioneers, as shown by the Federal census of that period, was an 
average annual migration of 70,000; an army as the locusts, without leaders 
— moving by instinct, under a fixed law, westward by States, impelled by a 
crowding population, augmented by 300,000 foreigners pressing upon them. 

The language objected to in my John Brown by the followers 
of E-obinson is as follows: 

It is not meant to disparage Mr. Tliayer's labor for Kansas. He ren- 
dered us good service in our days of trouble and peril; and those days were 



Ill 

days of peril for freedom in all America. Mr. Thayer did his duty, and did 
it well and to our satisfaction ; we are grateful for it ; as a people we have 
never failed to acknowledge our debt of gratitude, and we never shall. He 
possessed a genius for the work performed, and perhaps did his work better 
than another could; he was the right man in the right place. He possessed 
organizing power, and had the confidence of the people of New England who 
so freely and nobly poured out their wealth in aid of Kansas and free insti- 
tutions. What is to be condemned in Mr. Thayer's book is the assumption in 
it that he did all the work that made Kansas free — his taking credit for 
everything successfully done here. What he did was, as we said, only his 
duty; he did that in a spirit of self-sacrifice that makes him immortal here 
and elsewhere. That should be the sum of his claims, but it is not. After 
a careful reading of Mr. Thayer's book one must come to the conclusion that 
after the war was over he was enabled to see what had been successful in 
Kansas and what had been unsuccessful ; and then, with effrontery unparal- 
leled, claimed all the successful efforts as his own, or as the outgrowth of his 
scheme, and left all the failures to the rest of mankind. This is more in 
the spirit and pompous tone of the book than in specific claim, though there 
is much of that. Now, Kansas would have been made free had there been 
no Eli Thayer and no Emigrant Aid Company. It might have been in longer 
time, and in more suffering; although the organization of the Emigrant Aid 
Company enraged the South more than any other one thing, and many of the 
crimes committed against Kansas were inspired by hatred of it. Slavery 
would have been thrown off without the martyrdom of John Brown, and if 
John Bro\Mi had never been born. But Kansas laas made free by the assist- 
ance of Eli Thayer, as well as by that of John Brown; and slavery teas 
abolished by the assistance of John Brown as well as by that of Eli Thayer, 
though Thayer contributed much less towards the result than did Brown. 
The fate of universal freedom has never been in the keeping of any one man. 
Progress and advancement are inherent in mankind, and while many reaction- 
ary movements impede and hamper them, the work never stops for a moment. 
Carlyle has well said that nothing else than justice can survive in this world. 
Neither is it intended here to detract from any State in the work of 
making Kansas free. Senator Ingalls says that Kansas is the child of Mas- 
sachusetts, and so she is — a little ; she is much more the child of the Ohio 
Valley. This is so patent to all who make even a cursory investigation of 
the subject, that no argument is necessary to establish it. In the convention 
which formed the present State Constitution, in 1859, there were two mem- 
bers from Massachusetts, and only eleven from all New England. There 



112 

were five members from Kentucky, six from Indiana, six from Pennsylvania, 
and fourteen from Ohio. Concerning the population of that period, I quote 
from D. W. Wilder's " The Story of Kansas," in the Kansas Historical 
Collections, Volume 6, page 336, and following: 

" By the United States census taken in June, 1860, Kansas had a popu- 
lation of 107,206. Of these persons, 94,515 were born in the United States; 
12,691 were born in foreign countries. The census reports give the States 
in which the 94,515 natives were born. During the last forty years Ohio 
has led in great generals — Grant, Sheridan, Sherman; in Presidents, and in 
many other ways, — but she took her first great championship in coming to 
Kansas Territory. By that census Ohio stands No. 1, with 11,617 natives 
in Kansas in 1860. Missouri follows, with 11,356. Then come the babies 
born in Kansas itself, 10,997. Gen. James H. Lane helped to put next In- 
diana, with 9,945. Lincoln next sends from Illinois, 9,367. His native 
State is No. 6. Kentucky, 6,556. Then comes Franklin's Pennsylvania, 
6,463. Horace Greeley's Trilune makes New York 6,331. No. 9 is our 
neighbor, Iowa, 4,008. Kansas is sometimes called, from the States of In- 
diana, Illinois, and Iowa, the State of the three I's. Most folks are satisfied 
with two. 

" I have named 76,640 out of the 94,515, leaving 17,875 for the other 
States, and someone is beginning to say, ' I thought this was a New England 
State.' and 'Where is the Emigrant Aid Company?' From the days of the 
agitation against slavery and its extension, in which New England took a 
prominent part — it was the home of Garrison, Phillips, Sumner, Parker, 
Emerson, Lowell, and Whittier — down to this day. New England has often 
been called the Mother of Kansas. Exceedingly few persons ever examine 
a census report. 

" The last State above cited is Iowa, with 4,008 natives in Kansas when 
the Territory was six years old. The six New England States then had 
4.208 natives in Kansas. State No. 10 is Virginia, with 3,487 natives here. 
Virginia then included West Virginia, Most of these immgrants were prop- 
ably in favor of making Kansas a free State. 

" There was then no railroad across Missouri. But nearly all of the 
States that contributed largely to Kansas in the early and later years were 
connected with us by river navigation. These States were Pennsylvania, 
Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Arkansas. Missouri, 
and Iowa. These States and their rivers made Kansas. These States with 
their poor men who wanted homes in a free State, with free schools, made 
Kansas free. I will add a few names to that census list. No. 11 is Ten- 
nessee, 2,569; No. 12. Wisconsin, 1.351; No. 13, Massachusetts. 1,282; No. 14, 
North Carolina, 1,234; No. 15, Michigan, 1,137; No. 16, Vermont, 902; 
No. 17. Maine, 728; No. 18, Connecticut, 650; No. 19, Maryland, 620; 
No. 20. New Jersey, 499. 

" The story is told. You see that the new State, farther south than any 
other free State, was settled by the North. Missouri, her nearest neighbor, 
was settled by the South. Kansas broke all precedents; its people could not 
have been free without standing up to shoot and be shot at. Slavery was a^ 



113 

wild beast, and had to be killed. John Brown understood this fact more 
completely than any other Kansan." 

Kansas claims, and justly claims, to have drawn by her struggle for free- 
dom, gi-eat men and minds from all the free States and from some of the 
slave States. These were quickened and ground to sharpness here, and the 
result is the most cosmopolitan and aggressive State in America. And the 
honor of having contributed to make her free is great — too great for any 
one man to have more than his just share; justice demands that he have 
that, and that he have no more. 

It is desirable to notice what is claimed for tlie Aid Companj 
in 1887, by Kobinson, and what Thayer claimed for it in 1856. 
In a letter to Joseph A. Howland, of Worcester, Mass., in 1887, 
Robinson said : ^' During the critical period Kansas Territory 
was all Pro-Slavery except Lawrence, Topeka, Manhattan, Osa- 
watomie, and Wabaunsee; and all the towns, except perhaps 
the last, were settled under the auspices of the ^ew England 
Emigrant Aid Society." 

Observe w^hat is here claimed. '^Kansas Territory was all 
Pro-Slavery except " the towns mentioned. Truly, a deplorable 
condition! Eive little towns are Free-State. Pro-Slavery 
hordes surge up to 'the very gates of each. All the settlers on 
farms and claims are Pro-Slavery ! Of course there is no truth 
whatever in the statement. As G. W. Brown is the high-priest 
of the conspiracy he may interpret this claim and tell us what 
Robinson meant. There were Eree-State men in a hundred 
other towns who were fighting for freedom in Kansas during 
the " critical period,'' and the settlers on claims and farms were 
Free-State by a large majority from the very first. The state- 
ment was put in that form to make the work of the Aid Company 
appear of some magnitude. In the report of the Congressional 
Committee published in 1856, Eli Thayer makes a statement 
(see the following quotation therefrom) of what the company 



114 

then was doing and had done. He also tells what towns had 
been settled by it during the " critical period." Is it not a piti- 
able showing for the sum of $100,000 ? " We also erected, and 
prepared to erect, mills in the Territory at different places, some 
eight or ten of them. The company, I think, had one other 
building in Lawrence." It was so insignificant that he was 
compelled to add, ^^ but I do not now recollect what it is." " The 
company laid out no towns, and had no interest in laying out 
any." Quite a difference in the schedules in 1856 and 1887! 

Eli Thayer has much to say about saw-mills in his book ; one 
would think from what he says there was an Aid Company saw- 
mill in every to^vnship in the Territory. Much of the saving of 
Kansas is attributed to these Aid Company saw-mills. Wlien it 
comes down to the truth, "we erected, and prepared to erect, 
eight or ten." It reminds one of the story of the man who saw 
a million squirrels at one time, but when pressed to the wall 
on his exaggeration insisted that he did see a branch shake and 
supposed there was a squirrel there ; and refused to come down 
another notch. The quotation from Thayer is as follows : 

" We also erected, and prepared to erect, mills in the Territory at different 
places, some eight or ten of them. The company, I think, had one other 
building in Lawrence, but I do not now recollect what it is. Some temporary 
sheds were also erected by the company for the accommodation of emigrants 
there until they could erect buildings of their own. These were the only 
buildings that the Emigrant Aid Society ever were interested in. The total 
expenditures of the company, for all purposes, since its organization, have 
been less than $100,000. The company had no interest whatever in the 
residence occupied by Dr. Charles Robinson. 

" The company laid out no towns, and had no interest in laying out any. 
The towns were laid out by the settlers themselves, in some cases the settlers 
making some arrangements to give the company certain lots to induce us to 
make investments there, and thus aid in building up the place. This was 
the case with the town association of Lawrence. Tlie town association would 
have given similar advantages to any person or company of men who would 



115 

have made improvements. Other offers were made to us to induce similar 
investments in other settlements, some of which we were not able to accept 
for lack of means. It was by means of these investments that the company- 
expected to be reimbursed for what they expended. No other investments 
were made by this society in the Territory, except those I have stated." — 
Report Congressional Commitiee, p. 885. 

As a good description of the conditions in Kansas rural com- 

mnnities at that time, I quote from the paper of Hon. E. G. 

Elliott, hereinbefore referred to : 

" Tliough, in this inflow, the Free-State element largely predominated 
with increasing ratio, it was not bound together by any political affinities, 
but was an aggregation of home-seekers, drawn from a wide range, mainly 
of rural life, representing every phase of political opinion and shade of belief, 
strangers to each other, and spread over a wide expanse of territory; with- 
out mail facilities; with limited business relations and social intercourse; 
fastened to the soil by necessity of subsistence, and held to their homes for 
the support of their families; they were unfitted for the organization of 
an aggressive movement. But their fixity and inertia fitted them admirably 
for an army of stubborn occupation." 

G. W. Brown says Thayer traveled 60,000 miles at his own 
expense, and made other great sacrifices for Kansas. Mro 
Brown's statement is untrue or the books of the Company now 
in the Kansas Historical Society are false. They show that 
Thayer charged the Company for his expenses, which was all 
right if only the Jj-uth could be told about it. The books show 
other things some of Thayer's friends ought to examine before 
making additional claims. 

Prof. William H. Carruth, of the University of Kansas, 
wrote a very fine paper on the Emigrant Aid Company. It was 
published in Vol. 6, p. 90, Kansas Historical Collections. I 
take the following quotation from it : 

" Mr. Thayer's plan was an epitome of Yankee characteristics — thrift, 
and devotion to principle. He did not propose to win Kansas with hirelings. 



116 

but to show the natural aggressiveness of the Yankee an outlet for his 
energy at once honorable and profitable. And thus, also, the company he 
proposed was not to be a charitable labor entirely, as religious missionary 
societies mostly are; but he asked, Why is it worse for a company to make 
money by extending Christianity, or suppressing slavery, than by making 
cotton cloth? The company which he planned was intended to be an in- 
vestment company, giving and taking advantages with those whom it induced 
to go to Kansas, and incidentally crippling slavery. . . . While the Aid 
Company must be credited for something of the high tone of the New Eng- 
land emigrants, it is a common error to suppose that these emigrants came 
to Kansas expecting to win martyrs' crowns. I have questioned many of 
them as to their motives, and the uniform answer has been : ' We came to 
Kansas to better our condition, incidentally expecting to make it a free 8tate, 
We knew we took some risks; but if we had foreseen the struggles and 
hardships we actually underwent, we never should have gone.' " 

To show just what was proposed bj the Aid Company, I quote 
from its prospectus issued by its Secretary in 1854: 

" In return for these advantages, which the Company's rapid and simple 
effort affords to the emigrants and to the country, its stockholders receive 
that satisfaction, ranked by Lord Bacon among the very highest, of becoming 
founders of States, and more than this, — States which are prosperous and 
free. They secure more satisfaction by an investment which promises large 
returns at no distant day. 

" Under the plan proposed, it will be but two or three years before the 
Company can dispose of its property in the Territory first occupied — and 
reimburse itself for its expenses. At that time, — in a State of 70,000 in- 
habitants, it Avill possess several reservations of 640 acres each, — on which 
its boarding-houses and mills stand, — and the chur Aes and school-houses 
which it has rendered necessary. From these centers will the settlements 
of the State have radiated. In other words, these points will then be the 
large commercial positions of the new State. If there were only one such, — 
its value, after the region should be so far peopled, would make a very large 
dividend to the Company which sold it, besides restoring its original capital, 
with which to enable it to attempt the same adventure elsewhere. . . . 

" It is recommended that the Company's agents locate, and take up for 
the Company's benefit, the sections of land in which the boarding-houses and 
mills are located, — and no others. And further, that whenever the Terri- 



117 

tory shall be organized as a free State, the Trustees shall dispose of all its 
interests there, replace by the sales the money laid out, declare a dividend 
to the stockholders; and that they then select a new field, and make similar 
arrangements for the settlement and organization of another free State of 
this Union." 

QUALIFICATIONS FOR PIONEERS OF THE PEOPLE SENT 
OUT BY THE AID COMPANY. 

Many of the people who came to Kansas under the auspices of 
the Aid Company were not desirable settlers for a new country. 
Some of them were very desirable, and became prominent in 
public affairs. A large percentage returned to New England. 
In some instances the trade or profession of the emigrant is 
given. In the company record I find the following mentioned : 
hair-dresser, caulker, jeweler, tinman, machinist, varnisher, 
watchmaker, spar-maker, weaver, designer, broker, printer, 
spinner, sailor, ship-master, factory operatives, teacher, black- 
smith, carpenter, farmer, and bricklayer. There was work 
in Kansas for the farmer, teacher, bricklayer, carpenter, printer, 
and blacksmith; and little or none for the others unless they 
could turn their hands to something different from their former 
occupations. As showing the results of inducing many persons 
to come to Kansas who had no qualifications as pioneers, I quote 
from recognized authorities: 

[Free State, Oct. 29, 1855.] — Emigrants are arriving in large numbers. 
It is curious to note the different characters of persons who come to Kansas. 
When we are out on the road, and see a hack with two or four horses to it, 
we will say at once that there is a crowd of " Yankees." But if we see two 
or three ox teams, and a lot of boj^s and girls running after the wagons, we 
can " bet high " on that being a Western train. They are thus prepared to 
go when they please and come when they please, so that there is no danger 
of them ever becoming discouraged. Not so with Eastern emigrants, who 
are accustomed to every convenience of life. If it is cold and disagreeable, 
and the tavern crowded to overflowing, they become at once discouraged. 



118 

Three or four other parties came from the East during the first season, 
about seven hundred and fifty persons in all. These were by no means all 
who came. Immigrants came singly or in groups from different parts of 
the country. A number of prominent Free-State men were on the ground 
when the first party from Boston arrived. On the other hand, several of 
those who came in these parties became disgusted when they saw the true 
situation. This was especially true of the third party, who arrived early in 
October. The movement by this time had attracted wide attention, and the 
colonists had sent back glowing accounts of the country. These accounts 
were interpreted by a vivid imagination, and a number of soft-slippered 
people such as they would call " tenderfeet " in Colorado, enlisted, who ex- 
pected to find an earthly paradise. When they came and found only a few 
tents and a few thatched hovels, their disgust knew no bounds. They were 
looking for hotels with all the modern conveniences, and expecting to find 
good positions waiting for them in large business establishments. After 
exhausting their vocabulary in denouncing the leaders who had " deceived 
them " and induced them to come to such a barbarous place, and the people 
of Lawrence for not providing for them in a more appropriate way, they 
turned on their heels and " went back to their folks." — Rev. Richard Cord- 
ley, in Ms History of Lawrence. 

[Free State, March 3, 1856.] — Mr. Editor: No true-hearted Western 
man who has noticed the course of policy pursued by the Herald of Freedom 
in regard to matters concerning Kansas, can look upon that paper as rep- 
resenting the true interests of the people of Kansas. But on the other hand 
its line of policy is calculated not only to divide politically, but socially 
the people of this Territory and create a feeling that will not be shortly 
obliterated. One who knows nothing more of the Territory than what he 
learns from the Herald would readily suppose that there was no one here 
but the Eastern immigrants, with a few Pro-Slavery men from Missouri 
and other Southern States, and all that has been done here in Kansas 
towards settlement and improvement has been done by the Eastern settlers 
who are here, and that if Kansas is made a free State that the East must 
have all the glory herself. Now, sir, any person that knows anything of 
Kansas, knows that five out of six of the inhabitants of Kansas are from 
the Western States, and four-fifths of them are Free-State men, and are 
opposed to the Eastern Emigrant Aid Company, from the fact they look 
upon it as the primary cause of our troubles. Now I think it obvious to 
any man that will view the thing impartially that we could have done as 
well without the Aid Company as with it, from the fact that Nebraska, with- 



119 

out any such institution, is going ahead of us in almost everything; yet 
Kansas has all the natural advantages. Now, sir, I, as a Western man do 
not feel that it is right that we lie still in the matter, and either be mis- 
represented or not be represented at all. It is time for us to speak out, 
and let the facts in the case be known. If we do, I think it will shortly 
appear to the " world, and the rest of mankind," that there are others here 

who are not exactly from the wooden-nutmeg State. 

A Western Man. 

I made a short quotation from Rev. Richard Cordley's ex- 
cellent History of Lawrence. I had no thought of getting Dr. 
Cordley a generous allowance of G. W. Brown's billingsgate, 
though that was the result. It is a strong proof of the intol- 
erance of the conspiracy. Here is a man generally recognized 
as of more than average ability and of unquestioned integrity. 
He is charged with ignorance, and even his honesty is ques- 
tioned ; he is soundly abused. It may be that the known antag- 
onism of G. W. Brown and Robinson to ministers generally is 
responsible for it ; their ^^ religion " was a mixture of spirit- 
ualism and free-love if their actions are to be taken as an inter- 
pretation of it. The quotation which brought Dr. Cordley such 
a drubbing is as follows, and my comment as published in my 
John Brown is given also : 

" Then it is impossible to do justice to all the actors engaged. The 
movement that saved Kansas was of the people, rather than of the leaders. 
There were leaders, but they were leaders chiefly because they went before. 
They did not create the movement, nor the sentiment out of which it grew. 
The people moved toward Kansas of their own impulse. They did not go 
at the beck of any man. They followed certain men because they were going 
their way. If all the leaders had failed them they would have chosen others 
and gone on. They were moved by individual conviction and a common im- 
pulse. Men and women who have never been heard of displayed a spirit of 
self-sacrifice and heroism as worthy of remembrance as anything history 
records of noted names. No history can do honor to all who deserve it." — 
History of Lawrence, Rev. Richard Cordley, p. Hi, Preface. 

The above quotation from the excellent work of Dr. Cordley is the best 
statement of the cause actuating people to come to Kansas that has ever 
been written. It states the exact truth, and refutes completely the impression 



120 

sought to be conveyed by Eli Thayer in his The Kansas Crusade, that the 
peopling of Kansas was largely the work of the Emigrant Aid Company. 
It is estimated that at the end of 1854 there were eight thousand Free-State 
settlers in Kansas. Of these, Mr. Thayer admits that but five hundred were 
on the rolls of the Emigrant Aid Company; but he impliedly and with 
remarkable procacity, claims them all. The claim that the Emigrant Aid 
Company either peopled or saved Kansas is preposterous and ridiculous. 
It was one of the many agencies that accomplished that great work. Its 
services were valuable; they have been and always will be recognized. 
Dr. Cordley leaves little to be said on this point. 

For Mr. Thayer's claims, see his book, The Kansas Crusade; and for 
this particular matter, see page 54. The book is a very valuable contribu- 
tion to Kansas history, but it is written with that pompous self-importance 
uppermost in the mind of the author, which detracts from candor. 

EMIGRANT AID COMPANY— OPINIONS OF THE TERRITO- 
RIAL PRESS IN 1855. 

The following extracts are from the Kansas Free State, and 
are given to show what Western emigTants and Western men 
thought of the operations of the Emigrant Aid Company. The 
quotations given make up the most accurate account of the op- 
erations of the Company and the feeling towards it I have found. 
The Herald of Freedom contains many articles in praise of the 
Company, but as it is now kno^\Ti that it w^as the organ of the 
Company, its expressions cannot be accepted as impartial. 

The editors of the Free State were on the ground, and being 
conservative men and not opposed to the Company, their judg- 
ment may be considered deliberate and accurate. But it may be 
confidently expected that the Robinson estate or influence will 
attempt to blacken their characters, perhaps through G. W. 
Brown. Already a letter has been received by the Secretary of 
the State Historical Society saying Mr. Elliott was never a 
"holy man." 



121 

[Free State, Jan. 21; 1855.]— At a "Territorial Indignation- Meeting" 
it was declared as a part of a preamble, that : " Be it known that the talis- 
man, C. Robinson, or in justice termed the false Belshazzar, has, on former 
occasions, declared that if not by law, he has the right to cut timber on 
men's claims — that he should by force, without respect to the occupant of 
the claim, which he has done from time to time by armed men; in bands 
from eight to ten in number, committing their daily thefts, under whose 
instructions they affirm that the emissary of crime bid them go, whose fell 
spirit no human means can reach with those fraternal affections untouched 
by former dishonest acts, not obscure to us." 

C. W. Babcock supported this. J. A. Wakefield was chairman of the 
meeting. Babcock charged that " the Emigrant Aid Company of Boston 
is a swindle upon the public. The principal object of those concerned, being 
that of making a grand land speculation under the guise of making Kansas 
a free State." 

[Free State, Jan. 31, 1855.] — "I am glad for your word in reference to 
the E. A. Company; I regard it as a curse to the Territory, and have no 
doubt that all our affairs would be far more successfully conducted without 
than with that company. If men would succeed in making Kansas a free 
State, they must eschew all aid based merely upon pecuniary considerations. 
The E. A. Company has, by its constant appeals to the acquisitiveness of 
the Eastern people, induced many persons to come here for the sole purpose 
of speculation." 

[Free State, Feb. 7, 1855.] — There are some grounds for the allusion to 
white slaves, as there never were any slaves at the South who served their 
masters more faithfully than do a few of the Eastern immigrants the agents 
of the Company. It is so very palpable that anyone besides the citizens 
of Douglas can see it. As an instance of this servitude, we notice one fact. 
We spoke in our first number of the agent. Dr. C. Robinson, having disap- 
pointed us in regard to lumber. Just as soon as our paper was issued, 
several of them being subscribers, upon noticing our allusion to the agent, 
stopped their papers immediately, supposing that this would forever 
crush us. 

[Free State, April 7, 1855.] — And there were a good many Free-State 
men who did not vote at all, and there were from seventy-five to one hundred 
Eastern immigrants, just arrived, who voted the Free-State ticket. This we 
tried to prevent, but could not, as the Pro-Slavery imported voters use this 
as their great argument, that if Eastern persons have a right to come in 



122 

just before the election and vote, persons of other States have also the 
same right. 

[Free State, April 30, 1855.] — The tide of immigration continues to flow 
into the Territory. A great portion of that which is permanent is from the 
Western States. They come with good teams and wagons, seeds and agricul- 
tural implements all ready to go to work, being principally from the States 
of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri — men who are 
used to " moving," and consider it no great work. When they arrive with all 
their families, teams, cattle, etc., there is but little danger of their returning, 
the homesick fever passes off, after which they are very well contented. In 
this respect they differ from the immigration from east of Ohio, which comes 
principally by public conveyances, and many without their families, and 
upon arriving here or elsewhere in the Territory, and not finding everything 
as their fertile imagination had conceived beforehand, they get homesick, 
and not being accustomed to such expeditions, and being unincumbered, 
forthwith take the back track for their homes in the States. These men 
will of course carry back a bad tale, and will no doubt have great influence 
in retarding immigration. 

[Free State, Aug. 13, 1855.] — We had a very interesting conversation 
with a Pro-Slavery man the other day, in which we learned it was the design 
of the Legislature to fix the time for the election of Delegate to Congress 
about the 20th of September next; that is, after they had time to get their 
counties organized, the board of commissioners and other county officers all 
appointed. It is the design then to organize the militia of the Territory 
and arm them with 2137 muskets to which the Territory is entitled from 
the General Government. These guns are to be used by men who will en- 
force all the enactments of the present Legislature. They are now preparing 
for the guns so that they may be in readiness at the next election for Dele- 
gate, as their imported voters are expecting some excitement on that occa- 
sion. We inquired why they assumed the defensive to an extent. He re- 
plied that so long as the Aid Company had $5,000,000 of money at work in 
the Territory for the purpose of preventing the introduction of slavery, that 
it was necessary for them to strain every nerve when they had the upper 
hand, hence they were thoroughly organized, and they taxed every Pro- 
Slavery man from $10 to $50, according to his means, in order to promote 
the interests of their cause. We replied that they should not fear the funds 
of the Aid Company, as they were not able to build a hotel in Lawrence 
worth $6000. " That may be all true enough," he replied, " but it affords 



123 

us a very good club with which to beat them over the head, and from this 
fact we are bound to make Kansas a slave State, as the whole South are 
interested in our behalf, and are sending us aid." 

[Free State, Feb. 7, 1855.] — Tliere are times and places when the 
affection for the neighborhood or clique absorbs all the affections, and will 
not enable one to regard anyone outside of a certain sphere. This is a trait 
that characterizes a number of the Eastern immigrants of this place. They 
come to Kansas for the purpose of instructing the Western people how to 
build up a model New England State. They are advised, from headquarters, 
to avoid the use of all Western vulgarisms, and cherish their New England 
habits and customs. They hear and conceive a great many tales about West- 
ern life and manners. They like the Emigrant Aid Company because it 
sends out a large body of New-Englanders, so they can have their own 
society, ete. They work themselves into a belief that Western men, and 
especially Missourians, are of an inferior order of people, unfit for social 
intercourse; and unless a man agrees with them in all their peculiar no- 
tions about building up a model State, he is charged as a " Missourian " — 
as this is the worst epithet, in their opinion, they can apply to anyone 
they dislike. 

We would now sincerely advise these icise men of the East of the fact 
that the great majority of the settlers of Kansas are now and will be 
Western men. We understand from C. W. Babcock, Esq., who is taking 
the census, that there are more Illinois settlers in this district than there 
are New-Englanders altogether. 

This being the case, these refined gentlemen may just as well ma^e up 
their minds at once to consider Western men as human beings, and con- 
clude to associate with them; as it is utterly impossible for Massachusetts 
or New England to settle Kansas, though the Aid Company may have made 
them believe it. They will have but a small share in making a model State 
or in framing its free institutions. A great many who came out under the 
auspices of the Company are too selfish and clannish to effect anything in 
Kansas. 

[Free State, April 7, 1855.] — We observe the Northern press begins 
already to speak of the vast number who are coming to Kansas. One paper 
knows of a company of 2000, and the other, companies of hundreds and 
thousands. Editors of Northern papers should once pause and reflect. You 
played a miserable game on us last summer by boasting of the immense 
emigration to Kansas, — a game that resulted in giving us a Pro-Slavery 



124 

Delegate in Congress, and recently the election of nearly an entire Pro- 
Slavery Legislature; all done by imported votes. And not only this, but 
the helpless Free-State settlers of the Territory have been disfranchised, 
and, in some instances, driven from the polls. But now since you have com- 
menced the contest, you will have to fight it out. 

[Free State, May 14, 1855.] — Every day adds largely to the number of 
new arrivals, and we are happy to see among the immigrants not a few of 
our old friends and acquaintances. A large proportion of those who have 
arrived are here not only on their own account, but also .on the behalf of 
others who design emigrating should they give a favorable report of the 
country. Almost every portion of the Union has representation in the 
daily arrivals, and every week appears to increase the numbers. The char- 
acter of the immigration is in the main much different to that which we 
have been accustomed in this place. They have generally anticipated, and 
prepared for the hardships of pioneer life, and manifest a greater spirit of 
content and determination to " try the country " for themselves, than was 
prevalent among those who paid a hasty visit in the early spring. They do 
not come heralded by trumpets and their movements announced by every 
paper in the North, and introduce themselves as the long-looked-for party 
who are to give tone and character to Kansas, but still they do come; they 
come prepared, and determined to stay and to work. 

[Free State, Jan. 3, 1855.] — These descriptions, and the undue excite- 
ment created and nurtured by aid societies, have thrown upon us many who 
were inexperienced in pioneer life, and unwilling to endure the privations 
and hardships which they found connected with the settlement of a new 
country, . . . On the other hand, those who have had experience in 
pioneer life regard their trials here as light, compared with those of the 
first settlers of other States. 

[Free State, July 9, 1855.] — Our position in regard to this company is 
somewhat like the editor of the National Era and the Know-Nothings, and 
like him, besides our subscriptions suffering some, we have had heaped upon 
us a good deal of personal abuse for daring to say anything about the in- 
fallible organization. We see in Boston papers accounts of the wonderful 
things this Company has done for the cause of Freedom in Kansas. 

But we are sorry to see Gen. Pomeroy, being a good Free-State man, 
Buffer his devotion to that Company to cause him to indulge in gross and 
awful misrepresentations. In a letter to the New York Tribune, he says: 

" Undeterred meanwhile, the Emigrant Aid Company has laid the foun- 



125 

dations of eight towns, established in them mills and other appliances of 
which the settlers stand in need, collected in them qualified voters from the 
free States who mean to make a free State in Kansas, and, in one word, 
created the only centers of opinion which there are in the Territory. . . . 
" We repeat the statement, that there are in Kansas at the present 
moment, eight centers and eight only, which deserve the name of towns: 
Lawrence, Topeka, Pawnee, Boston, Osawatomie, Grasshopper Falls, are 
six of these; of the names of the two others we are not informed. These 
eight points are settled with the advice and assistance of the Emigrant Aid 
Company. Its mills are at work in them. The emigrants who have gone 
forward under its aus.piees are building them. There is not another center 
of influence or trade in Kansas.'' 

Any man who cares anything about his reputation for veracity should 
be very sorry to state that these were the only centers of opinion in Kansas. 
Leavenworth is the first town in point of trade and improvement in the 
Territory, and a majority of its citizens are sound Free-State men. Council 
City, Atchison, Kickapoo, Indianola, Martinsburg, and ten other towns, all 
contain a good proportion of Free-State votes and are as much centers of 
opinion as five of the places mentioned, and the two that no one else, as well 
as the General, ever heard of. True, some of the towns are on the Missouri 
river, and thus more exposed to the incursions of the barbarians, and of 
course the Free-State men were in a measure stifled, yet they are still there, 
sound, reliable men, doing a good work. Query: Why did not the Aid Com- 
pany found a few towns on the Missouri river? The sites are eligible, the 
very thresholds of the Territory, and navigation almost constant. 

Let justice be done to all. Many other good Free-State men have 
accomplished a great deal in building up towns and promoting the interests 
of Kansas as well as those of the Aid Company. Osawatomie was founded 
by a gentleman, 0. C. Brown, of Utica, New York. The General, as agent 
of the Aid Company, may have visited these eight points and sketched towns 
in his mind's eye, but made no further improvement, except locating a mill 
•at two of the places, Lawrence and Topeka, mills that have done no good 
whatever as yet. As to so much being done for the settlers at these eight 
centers of light, is all a humbug. The mill here has been a perfect nuisance. 
The hotel, which has been building ever since the Company had an exist- 
ence, still lingers. It is now up one story, the work having stopped, and the 
contractor has taken his hands off, not being able to get his pay, and of 
course cannot go on with the work. 

The mill and the hotel are all they have attempted here, and they have 
done nothing at the other points. This hotel being delayed thus, has been 
more injury to the place than all other things combined. Hundreds of per- 



126 

sons have left our place for the want of a comfortable place to stop at. 
Yet the Company will neither do anything itself, nor give up the work to 
individuals who would put it up immediately. We think that this powerful 
Company has scared the citizens of Lawrence into acquiescence, silence and 
submission long enough. If you have any regard for your own pecuniary 
interests, you will no longer submit to their tantalizing humbugging opera- 
tions. Let us have a hotel ready for the reception of the immense immigra- 
tion that will pour in here in the fall. It is suicidal for us to depend on 
the Aid Company doing anything for Lawrence, or for any other point in 
Kansas Territory. 

[Free State, March 3, 1855.] — As many are inquisitive as to the real 
contest in Kansas, we trespass upon the time of our readers once more in 
noticing this subject. 

For a long series of years prior to the passage of the Nebraska Bill 
everything was quiet, and every one supposed the great question of slavery 
was forever settled in all that territory acquired from France, known as 
the Louisiana Purchase, north of 36° 30'. Iowa was organized and came 
in as a flourishing State; in connection with which not one word was said 
in relation to slavery. Minnesota also organized out of this territory, and 
is now well-nigh a State. No one thought of the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise all this while. But when it became necessary to organize Kansas, 
it must be repealed, though it should require the sacrifice of the whole 
Democratic party. The compromise which forever prohibited slavery north 
of 36° 30' is repealed. We, though not approving it, as law-abiding men 
determined to stand on the act and carry out its provisions, at the same 
time doing all in our power to make Kansas free, notwithstanding all the 
disadvantages the repeal might give us in the contest. 

But when the bill passed, the news startled a great majority of the 
Northern men — the groans of departing slaves, chains, shackles, negro whips 
and bloodhounds, were all distinctly seen and heard on the beautiful plains 
of Kansas. 

About this time the enterprising geniuses of the East were eager for a 
new field in which to operate, — conceived a magnificent plan by which to 
make Kansas, not a pioneer, but all on a sudden a model New England free 
State. At first applies for a charter, and then refuses to act under it; 
speaks of contracting with the various railroads for the conveyance of 
20,000 to Kansas last fall; that a vast amount of machinery would be taken 
out; also a printing-press from which a paper would be issued, being the 
organ of the agents, would be instrumental in encouraging emigi-ation, etc. 



127 

That as an inducement to emigrate, large settlements would be formed, 
from which other settlements would radiate, and thus property would sud- 
denly became valuable, etc. The result was that many of the mammoth 
newspapers of the cities, eager for news, noticed as the most gigantic en- 
terprise of the age, the "New England Emigrant Aid Society"; that this 
association, having $5,000,000 of capital, was about conveying 20,000 or 
30,000 persons to Kansas last fall; that they were going to build up a 
powerful model State in a short time; and having finished Kansas, they 
intended continuing their efforts by building a fortress of such States from 
Nebraska to the Gulf of Mexico, 

Such being heralded forth weekly, many were of the opinion that so far 
as slavery in Kansas was concerned, everything was safe. 

At first, the strongest hearts and most enthusiastic slaveholders were 
appalled, and thought it useless to attempt doing anything more than vent 
their indignation in a few violent resolutions. But when they began to 
witness the abortive attempt of said society in settling Kansas — when they 
saw 20,000 dwindle down to two or three hundred — when they saw all 
the vast machinery of the Company amount to nothing but an old wornout 
saw-mill, that has been a great deal more injury to the settlement than 
benefit, they took courage, and concluded at once that all this blow about 
settling Kansas, and making it free, was only so much Northern gas. 

Very soon there is an organized effort in Missouri and throughout the 
South for the purpose of secretly but effectively throwing a great many Pro- 
Slavery men into Kansas. This they have done and are now doing, as they 
say, through self-defense, and for the purpose of more thoroughly counteract- 
ing the efforts of the Aid Society in abolitionizing the Territory. 

This being the state of things here, the great contest is now for victory — 
for the triumph. The Pro-Slavery party wish to beat the aid societies at 
their own game of settling Kansas. The New England Emigrant Aid Com- 
pany, being so far a signal failure, has greatly encouraged the friends of 
slavery; and while the Free-State men of the States are waiting to see what 
will be the result, the Pro-Slavery party are powerfully at work shaping its 
institutions to suit their views. 

Had there been no effort made to stimulate emigration, but every one 
left to pursue his own course in the matter of settling Kansas, the great 
influx of free labor would have secured it forever to freedom. 

[Free State, March 3, 1855.] — Nothing connected with the settling of 
any of the Territories has attracted so much of the public attention, as 
the New England Aid Society. Many of the newspapers have noticed the 



128 

Society and its organ, the Herald, in such a way that all the reading press 
in the United States have heard of it. The result is that many are inquisi- 
tive of us as to its operations, numbers, influence, and character. We know 
not why it is that we are inquired of, unless it be that we are considered 
unconnected with it, and are therefore in a better condition to speak im- 
partially of it. 

We have spoken in another column of the paper as to the original policy 
of the Company, viz., that it was gotten up with the ostensible purpose of 
making Kansas a free State. It has been charged with designs of speculating 
in real estate in the Territory. 

Whether this is so or not we will not pretend to say. We know that 
one-fourth of the lots in Lawrence have been set apart for the Company, 
and that its Secretary states, as an inducement for persons to take stock, 
that any investment which they might make in Kansas would suddenly 
become valuable; that even their property in one locality would declare a 
large dividend to the Company. 

No one has as yet made anything by speculating in lands in Kansas. 
We will not vouch for this as to the future. Every man knows that the 
Company does not originate in a section in which men are disposed to 
enlist in such enterprises without some assurance of a compensation for the 
time and money employed. 

Various views exist as to the Company. While many of the Eastern 
papers regard the Company as the great deathblow to slavery, nearly all 
here, except a few who are connected with it, consider it as productive of 
the greatest injury to the cause of Freedom in Kansas. 

We have seen a number of very flattering articles in the papers in regard 
to this company, but none are now handy except the following from the 
Progressive Age, of Bath, Maine. Speaking of land investments in Kansas, 
it says: 

" Xow, as to the remuneration for the expenses incurred. This re- 
muneration is obtained in the rise and fall of real estate. In those localities 
where villages and cities spring up almost by the touch of enchantment, the 
rise in real estate is very great. The price to be paid to the Government, 
when surveyed, is one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. The same be- 
comes in a single year worth many hundreds. In this rise the Company are 
the sharers. They receive a part; the remainder belongs to the original 
settlers as tenants in common. The city of Lawrence, which is a town not 
six months old, is a striking example of the workings of the new theory. 
Its first settlers arrived in the latter part of July last. It now contains a 
population of near 600, and upwards of 100 residences, of rude construction, 
it is true; a steam saw-mill, turning out its three or four thousand feet of 



120 

lumber daily; there are also a number of boarding-houses, two stores, and 
several others about opening; three printing-offices, issuing three anti- 
slavery papers weeklj^, one of which is the Herald of Freedoin, is nearly as 
large as the largest in the State; and an athenaeum, in which a course of 
lectures on various scientific subjects are actually being given. The land 
on w^hich it stands, and which will not be surveyed by the Government for 
some time, has already risen in value to much more than enough to pay the 
whole expense of the Company in planting the colony. 

" While this excellent institution is thus opening one of the grandest 
schemes of emigration, in Avhich the refinements of civilization follow close 
on the track of the emigrant, and take up their abode by his side in the 
wilderness, and thus connect him back with scenes of social life he has left, 
it is doing a far greater work for human freedom. It is placing impregnable 
fortresses throughout the debatable land against which the forces of human 
slaver}^ may battle in vain. If a single individual in the South, or a single 
publication, immediately sets the whole system with vibrations, what crush- 
ing weight would a few cities, even like Lawrence, with her Herald of Free- 
dom, her free schools and churches; above all, her intelligent, determined 
free men, have upon slavery in its incipient stages? We leave our readers 
to guess. 

" No movement of the Xorth has attracted so much attention and 
aroused up the feelings of the South to the degree of her peculiar institu- 
tion, as this Emigrant Aid Society." 

It can be seen in this intimation how the company will be remunerated. 
If the " city of LaAvrence is a striking example of the workings of this new 
theory," we hope we shall see no more of the workings. They have settled 
here on the legal claims of others, and it is true lots and " city interests " 
have sold high, but every one can judge as to the legality of such method of 
getting money. As to the saw-mill, about which so much has been said, it 
has been a greater drawback to the settlement of this place than all other 
things together. It has not cut three thousand feet per week. Had not 
every one supposed that the Company was going to establish some of its 
" six mills " in Lawrence, private enterprises would have long since put up 
at least two here. But as it is, all depend on the Company's mill, which has 
done no good whatever, and it is no use for the Herald and letter-writers 
to smooth this matter over, and make the people in the States, and those 
unacquainted with the facts, believe that this mill has been a powerful in- 
strument in building up this place. The fact is, that the Company with its 
boast of $5,000,000, has seared off private enterprises, and have accomplished 
nothing for the settlement itself. 

^Vhile we admire the pretended motive of this Company, Ave haA^e the 
most supreme contempt for the Avisdom displayed in the execution of its 
designs. 



130 

Its every movement, from its origin to the pvps^iiit —^ "' '■ 
insight into human na+""" . ■ ' 'i of 

which the masses are n ' 

Company contains a fe 
ment, schools, churches. 
Territory. 

Western men and Sc "( ". "na 

tions that none of these ; vui, .... i^nj otner quarter except the 

East. Taken in connection with the fact that the Company has done nothing 
towards the settling of Kansas, has caused the great majority to lose con- 
fidence in the operations. So much is this the case, that though the Eastern 
]3apers are frequently noticing that the Herald of Fr^eedonv is the Com- 
pany's organ, its editor and his friends deny bitterly that the Herald has any 
connection whatever with the Company, Its friends in the Territory knew 
well the bad policy and ruinous effect this boasting of the civilization and 
refinement, morals, schools, churches, and a " printing-press which would be 
the organ of the agent," would all have, which it was going to introduce- in 
Kansas, and now they wish to get out of the predicament the best way they 
can, by denying these facts that are too well established for sensible men 
to contradict. Honor the many conservative articles we see in the Herald. 

There are about 300 or 400 persons in the Territory, who came out 
under the auspices of this Company. A great majority of them are very 
good citizens, and feel somewhat deceived as to the Companj^'s operations. 
One old saw-mill, which sometimes saws and most of the time does not, a 
printing-press (but not a steam press), and this is the sum total of the 
Company's operations in Kansas. 

So far from its having the effect that the Age intimates, it has as yet 
done more to extend slavery than even the repeal of the Missouri Com- 
promise itself. 



THE LIFE OF 

GENERAL JAMES H. LANE 



BY 

HON. JOHN SPEER. 



The largest, most comprehensive, and most 

authentic life ever written of 

General Lane. 



John Speer was one of the very first journaHsts to 
issue a Free-State newspaper in Kansas Territory. He 
was the intimate friend of General Lane ; and he was 
the enemy of no man who fought or worked for free- 
dom in Kansas. He was President of the State His- 
torical Society, and in other ways was identified with 
Kansas, her history and interests, for nearly fifty years. 

The book is illustrated ; bound in cloth ; 336 pages. 
Price, postpaid, I2.00. 

There are not to exceed forty copies of this great 
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ADDRESS ALL ORDERS TO 

CRANE & COMPANY, TOPEKA, KAN. 



THE LIFE OF 



Captain John Brown 



THE LAST OF THE PURITANS. 



By WILLIAM ELSEY CONNELLEY, 

Author of "James H. Lane," "Wyandot Folk-Lore," "Memoir 
of John J. Ingalls," etc., etc. 



A Volume was written by G. W. Brown, and circu- 
lated by the Robinson influence in the vain and futile 
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and new editions will have to be published. It is a 
great book ; it will now be more widely read than ever. 
Secure a copy at once. 



Illustrated; bound in cloth ; 426 pages. 
Price, $1.00, postpaid. 



Crane Si Company, Publishers 

Topeka, Kansas. 



